Congress finds and declares the following:
(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. Native performance on standardized tests is low, 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 in this part, 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 Alaska and Alaska villages should be addressed through the development and implementation of innovative, model programs in a variety of areas.
(7) 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 VII, §7302, as added Pub. L. 107–110, title VII, §701, Jan. 8, 2002, 115 Stat. 1942.)
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