Ninety-three percent of American Indian students, totaling more than 624,000, attend nontribal public schools, while the remaining 7 percent go to schools that are overseen by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to a policy handbook co-produced by the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, and the National Indian Education Association, a Washington-based organization that promotes the expansion of educational opportunities for Native Americans.
The handbook emphasizes an increasing need for high-quality teachers in all public and tribal schools in which Native American children are enrolled. In addition, it cites rural isolation, low salaries, and high poverty rates in communities where Native Americans live as reasons why it is difficult to recruit and keep good teachers.
