The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released, Indian Affairs: Preliminary Results Show Continued Challenges to the Oversight and Support of Education Facilities.The preliminary report focuses on the known conditions of selected Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIE) schools and how effective Indian Affairs is in supporting and overseeing BIE school facilities. GAO stresses that there are issues with the quality of data collected by Indian Affairs including inconsistent data reporting by schools and inadequate quality controls. Because of this, GAO is encountering incomplete and non-accurate physical condition data on tribal school facilities from BIE.
Concerns uncovered through GAO’s research include:
- Declines in staffing levels and gaps in technical expertise among facility personnel in Indian Affairs.
- Inconsistent oversight of some school construction projects provided by Indian Affairs.
- Poor communication between Indian Affairs and schools and tribes leading to confusion about whom to contact to address facility problems.
The GAO report was sparked by a series of recent reports about the physical condition of the BIE schools. BIE oversees 185 elementary and secondary schools that serve around 41,000 students in 23 states. A full report will be released later in the year.
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