 CHAPTER 70--STRENGTHENING AND IMPROVEMENT OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY 
                                 SCHOOLS
 
   SUBCHAPTER IX--INDIAN, NATIVE HAWAIIAN, AND ALASKA NATIVE EDUCATION
 
                     Part C--Alaska Native Education
 
Sec. 7932. Findings

    The Congress finds and declares:
        (1) The attainment of educational success is critical to the 
    betterment of the conditions, long-term well-being and preservation 
    of the culture of Alaska Natives.
        (2) It is the policy of the Federal Government to encourage the 
    maximum participation by Alaska Natives in the planning and the 
    management of Alaska Native education programs.
        (3) Alaska Native children enter and exit school with serious 
    educational handicaps.
        (4) The educational achievement of Alaska Native children is far 
    below national norms. In addition to low Native performance on 
    standardized tests, Native student dropout rates are high, and 
    Natives are significantly underrepresented among holders of 
    baccalaureate degrees in the State of Alaska. As a result, Native 
    students are being denied their opportunity to become full 
    participants in society by grade school and high school educations 
    that are condemning an entire generation to an underclass status and 
    a life of limited choices.
        (5) The programs authorized herein, combined with expanded Head 
    Start, infant learning and early childhood education programs, and 
    parent education programs are essential if educational handicaps are 
    to be overcome.
        (6) The sheer magnitude of the geographic barriers to be 
    overcome in delivering educational services in rural and village 
    Alaska should be addressed through the development and 
    implementation of innovative, model programs in a variety of areas.
        (7) Congress finds that Native children should be afforded the 
    opportunity to begin their formal education on a par with their non-
    Native peers. The Federal Government should lend support to efforts 
    developed by and undertaken within the Alaska Native community to 
    improve educational opportunity for all students.

(Pub. L. 89-10, title IX, Sec. 9302, as added Pub. L. 103-382, title I, 
Sec. 101, Oct. 20, 1994, 108 Stat. 3805.)
