JOM funds paid for trips to NIEA conference in Hawaii

Federal Indian education funds, including some from the Johnson O'Malley program, were used to send Navajo and Lumbee delegations to the National Indian Education conference in Hawaii.

The Central Consolidated School District in New Mexico, which serves students on the Navajo Nation, sent seven people to the conference. The district used $20,000 in JOM funds to help pay for their trips, even though the district's JOM funding has been reduced by the Bush administration.

Over in North Carolina, the Lumbee Tribe sent 10 council members and four staff employees to the conference. The staff's trips were funded by a non-profit organization. The tribe's costs were not reported.

The local school district in Robeson County, where nearly half of the students are Indian, sent more than a dozen to the conference. The district used $11,000 in federal Indian education funds to help pay for the trip.

Get the Story:
Robeson schools send group to Hawaii (The Fayetteville Observer 10/30)
Meetings in paradise (The Farmington Daily Times 10/28)
Lumbee official blasts Hawaii trip (The Robesonian 10/28)
Lumbee council member protests travel to Hawaii (The Fayetteville Observer 10/25)

$rl National Indian Education Association - http://www.niea.org