Two Democratic lawmakers in Colorado are sponsoring a bill to cut the Native student tuition program at Fort Lewis College.

The state currently covers the full tuition of every Native student. The bill would reimburse the college only for the "cost of instruction," The Durango Herald reported.

That means Fort Lewis would only get $3,000 per student instead of the full tuition amount. The bill would cut $1.8 million from the college.

“I've never seen anything where I've felt so singled out by the state," vice president Steve Schwartz told the Herald.

Fort Lewis began as an Indian boarding school that was run by the federal government. When it became a public institution, the state promised to admit Indian students "free of tuition and on an equality with white students."

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State eyes cuts to FLC Indians (The Durango Herald 1/16)