Tribal Colleges and Universities Seek Greater Recognition and Funding

Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) have been around for more than 50 years, serving not only Native American and Alaska Native students but also anyone from the rural communities in which they reside. 35 TCUs in the United States train future teachers, nurses, engineers, and more.

However, despite serving approximately 28,000 students annually, experts say TCU is often invisible to the public or seen as lower-quality institutions than other public or private institutions, despite its accreditation by state agencies. Moreover, CSUs grapple with small operating budgets, which depend almost entirely on federal funds or donations. The majority of TCUs receive no state funding, although about 20% of TCU students are not affiliated with any tribal state.

Marcella Bombardieri, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.“As a general rule, tribal colleges do not get funding for any of their non-Native students, because federal funding only applies to Native American students,” said Marcella Bombardieri, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), a nonpartisan organization. An independent policy institute working to transform the United States and improve the lives of Americans with progressive ideas. “These are tribally sanctioned institutions—not state institutions, so states don’t have the same obligation.”

Bombardier is working on a Three part series with CAP that can attract more public attention, and ideally the attention of potential financiers, to these…