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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'I Bawled': A Congresswoman's 18-Month Fight For A Neglected Tribal School Just Paid Off
(HuffPost) A single sentence in the 4,155-page omnibus spending bill is everything that Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) came to Congress to do.
WASHINGTON Buried in the 4,155-page omnibus spending bill unveiled in the Senate on Tuesday is a single sentence thats likely to go unnoticed by almost everyone except the freshman congresswoman who fought for it with everything she had for the last year and a half. For an additional amount for Education Construction, $90,465,000, to remain available until expended for necessary expenses related to the consequences of flooding at the ToHajiilee Community School.
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The ToHajiilee Community School has been neglected and massively underfunded since its founding. Its one of 183 K-12 schools overseen by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), responsible for providing education to more than 48,000 Native American children around the country. Of these schools, 86 are in poor condition, and 73 dont have the money for needed repairs, according to BIE data from 2021. An additional 41 of these schools are in fair condition. The school isnt just substandard; its a site that carries historical trauma. Like many of todays BIE schools, the ToHajiilee Community School is also a former Indian boarding school. For about 150 years, the U.S. government forced tens of thousands of Indigenous children to attend these schools to try to assimilate them into white culture. As a result, these kids endured physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Some died. Others disappeared.
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Over the past few weeks, as lawmakers scrambled to get their priorities into the $1.7 trillion year-end spending bill, Stansbury says she spent every day, all day long, dogging House and Senate appropriators, Hill leaders and administration officials to include money for the school. She didnt know until Tuesday morning, when the bill was publicly released and she pored over its text, that her efforts had paid off. Weve been working so hard on this, for so long, I literally woke up
and bawled my eyes out, Stansbury told HuffPost in an emotional interview on Tuesday. I invested everything I had to get funding for this school. The ToHajiilee community is only a short distance from Albuquerque, but the people out there have so much need, and the community hasnt had its needs and priorities met. Its just so huge for this community.
Even if I accomplish nothing else in my time serving in Congress, she added, this is the most important thing I could have ever imagined that we could get into the budget.
Read More: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/melanie-stansbury-tribal-school-funding-construction_n_63a1fe41e4b04414304b9f12
CurtEastPoint
(19,102 posts)KUDOS TO HER!
Bluethroughu
(5,633 posts)Sure the rich and initialed are all about themselves, but the rest of the country is about building a better stronger community and country.
Excellent job freshman.
Tom Rinaldo
(22,998 posts)I know nothing about her other than reading this, but the fact that she cared so much for relatively powerless constituents in need tells me what I need to know about her. Bravo Job well done!
calimary
(83,894 posts)Amazing what a year and a half, and a single sentence, can do - when it comes to HELPING PEOPLE.
Just one little detail can make a world of difference in peoples lives and futures.
Hermit-The-Prog
(36,350 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)money well spent--thanks to congresswoman stansbury for her efforts