activities and potential for continued success.

These students were

selected from more than 1,500 institutions of higher learning thorughout

the United States and several foreign nations.

Each of these successful students represent an individual insurance policy against unemployment and virtually assures that one more American Indian will become an effective and contributing citizen of the American democracy. Like many worthy programs, the Tribal Colleges are working toward making the Indian Reservation a better place to live.

If one considers the vast amount of federal money invested on Indian reservations and on Indian programs over the last several decades and compares that figure to the federal money spent on the Tribal colleges and then compares the genuine success of these programs, it becomes clear that the Tribal Colleges are the best and most cost effective programs on Indian Reservations today. Please forgive me when I boast that the Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs must join the college in recognizing that the Tribal Colleges currently offer the best hope towards allowing the American Indian and their home reservations a chance to share in the American Dream.

Long ago, America realized that an employed American is a good American. Today we are seeing more Indian people gain employment following training at our colleges. The colleges are providing American Indians access to education which helps them secure employment and to earn a living. Tribal Colleges are adequately preparing Tribal members to continue to learn and to teach future generations the value of education.

This concentration of success, and of future aspirations, is being rapidly eroded by a combination of economic problems which threaten_to

cripple the operation of our institutions.

Tribal Colleges are faced with the

most difficult economic crisis since the initial implementation of the Tribally

Controlled College Assistance Act.

Our current economic crisis is due to a variety of factors. Certain factors such as geographic isolation, adverse weather conditions, students graduating from local high schools who are not academically prepared and many other factors are beyond the control of our institutions. Nevertheless, they

are factors which must be dealt with.

In 1980, the Tribal Colleges received approximately $3,000 per each FTE
This year, 1984, we are told that we can expect to receive

Indian student.

$2,459 per FTE.

Reservation Indians are the poorest people in America, and as a people they are the most educationally deprived of all American citizens.

Even so,

in spite of these social and economic disadvantages, reservation Indians are being made to operate their colleges at a cost which is perhaps the lowest per-pupil allowance in the entire Unites States including those colleges operated by the Federal Government for Indians, Blacks and other special groups of people.

Mr. Chairman, in the past we have appeared before your committee to ask for small increases to our funding. The Tribal Colleges have never received nor even requested that Congress fund us at the level authorized by the law. Obviously, our actual needs could be better met if funding were appropriated at the authorized level. However, today we are asking that funding be appropriated which would bring us to the funding level received in 1980. For

FY '86 the Tribal Colleges are targeted to receive approximately 23%

less than was received in FY '80. This drastic decrease combined with rising inflation since 1980 means that we will have about forty-five percent (45%)

less money to spend next year than in 1980.

Tribal Colleges have exhausted all possible ways of exercising fiscal limitations. We have cut spending and in order to get by, we have implemented many painful dislocations of available resources. We do not have the buying power that we had in 1980. Presented below are some examples which compare

our buying power today with our buying power in 1980.

1. Since 1980, inflation has increased approximately 21%.
bought with a dollar in 1980 is costing us $1.21 today.

What we

2. Utilities; according to the local electric company, the cost for
one kilowatt hour has increased 41% since 1980, and today we have
more space which must be heated.

3. Propane costs have increased from $.62 per gallon in 1980 to $.70
per gallon in 1984.

4. Water, trash disposal, and other utility and maintenance costs have increased.

5. Insurance on buildings and equipment have increased by 40%.

Other areas which are costing more today than in 1980 include:

6. Admission and records.

7. Retirement benefits

8. Postage

9. Fringe benefits

10. Library service

11. Student Financial Aid

12. Recruitment

13. Travel

14. Printing

15. Security

16. Janitorial Services

17. Graduation

18. Memberships

19. Salaries

20. Advertising

All of these factors clearly dramatize the economic crisis being faced

by the Tribal Colleges. With these cost increases and with inflation, our

institutions are being forced to "steal" from essential areas, such as

"instruction".

The worth of any college can be measured by the quality of its instructional program. Clearly, as was made evident by the graduate follow-up

information presented earlier, the Tribal Colleges are providing quality education. However, "quality" is increasingly overshadowed by uncontrollable demands on decreasing financial resources.

Funding has not kept pace with increasing enrollments nor has funding kept pace with rising operational costs. If Turtle Mountain Community College is to insure quality and expanded educational opportunities, then funds must be appropriated to at least the FY '80 level of $3,000 per FTE.

The concern we bring before the committee today is money. However, the real concern we all face is no longer limited to money. The real danger lies in our ability to continue to deliver quality education to Indian people.

According to the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education, the average salary for a faculty person at a two year college in North Dakota is $24,213. At our Tribal college, the average instructors salary is just under $17,000. On the Federal level, the local BIA Civil Service High School Teacher receives an average salary of $18,801 and a BIA Civil Service Secretary GS/5 Step 7 receives $17,270.

Clearly our labor costs are not excessive. In fact, our "College"

instructors are some of the lowest paid workers in the area. Normally, when salaries are low, production is low. However, at least for now, production at Turtle Mountain Community College continues to increase.

The greatest increase in full time instructors occurred at the start of

FY '81. The 1980-81 academic year was the first year in which P.L. 95-471 funds were made available for an entire school year.