[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 43 (Thursday, March 17, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1596-S1597]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. McCAIN:
  S. 2711. A bill to expand opportunity for Native American children 
through additional options in education, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Indian Affairs.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to help 
tackle the challenging problem of fixing our broken education system on 
Indian reservations. The bill, known as the Native American Education 
Opportunity Act, would expand the education opportunities of Native 
American student living on reservations by allowing their parents to 
take full advantage of Education Savings Account which would be funded 
by the Bureau of Indian Education, BIE.
  Under this bill, eligible students could apply for up to 90 percent 
of the per pupil expenditure that BIE would spend on them at a BIE 
school and use those funds to pay for private school tuition, tutors, 
online curriculum courses, special needs services, and other K-12 
education needs. This funding would be provided through the use of 
Education Savings Accounts, or ESA's, which are established State-
administered programs in the States of Arizona, Mississippi, Florida, 
Tennessee, and Nevada.
  Across the Nation, there is a growing interest in State legislatures 
in enacting ESA's because of the freedom and opportunity they give to 
families, but in particular low-income students. My home State of 
Arizona is at the forefront of this revolutionary approach of 
empowering parents-To customize their child's education. I believe that 
families living on Indian reservations in my state and elsewhere should 
reap the benefits of ESA's too.
  As my colleagues know, the need to improve Indian County is a crisis 
issue. I'm of course referring to the broken Bureau of Indian Education 
system which consists of 185 schools and 41,000 students. By some 
estimates, the BIE's

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average per pupil spending is $15,000--higher than the national 
average. Less than 7 percent of all Native American students attend a 
BIE school, but the performance disparity between BIE students and 
Native American students attending non-BIB schools is staggering. 
Almost half of BIE students do not graduate from high school. Their 
test scores trail by double digits compared to their peers. Some BIB 
schools have facilities that are unsuitable as a learning environment. 
A series of recent reports by the Government Accountability Office, 
GAO, have focused on the disrepair of schools and bureaucratic 
mismanagement. Some schools desks, school supplies, and even heat.
  I wholeheartedly agree that Congress must intervene and implement 
administrative reforms and maintenance improvements. But, let us 
consider that market competition could be a powerful tool for improving 
teacher retention, diversifying education options, and improving test 
scores and graduation rates in Indian Country more so than any 5-year 
BIB plan developed in Washington.
  This bill is particularly useful for rural Indian reservations with 
large land bases where children living on the reservation have little 
choice but to attend a BIB school. Take for example the Navajo Nation 
where non-BIB public schools can be over 50 miles away, and private 
school options are few and far between. It is unconscionable to leave 
students stranded in failing schools when we can create the option of 
expanding their educational opportunities in even the most remote parts 
of Indian County. We can and should do more to create a market that 
attracts private schools and other education services willing to open 
shop on remote Indian reservations.
  School choice initiatives, while still relatively new, are building a 
track record of success. One example is a Federal program set up 12 
years ago to address the beleaguered public school system in our 
Nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Congress established the D.C. 
Opportunity Scholarship Program which at one time provided up to $20 
million in scholarships to low income families to pull their children 
out of a failing DC public schools and place them in a private school. 
The DC program transformed the future of thousands of children in the 
District. In 2011, a U.S. Department of Education study found that 
graduation rates, particularly among minority students jumped by as 
much as 20 percent for the kids who participated in the program.
  The situation in the BIE school system is failing, and it is a 
reflection of our failure in our solemn obligation to meet certain 
needs of Native Americans living on Indian reservations. I believe that 
opening up education opportunism beyond BIE schools for Native American 
families can prove to be one of the most effective agents for change 
for education in Indian Country. I encourage my colleagues to support 
this legislation.
                                 ______