아래 글은, 미국 원주민들의 가난과 교육의 관계에 대한 기고문입니다. 가난은 결국 교육의 부재 때문이라고 설명하고 있습니다. 선교사의 입장에서는 그 가난의 문제는 교육의 부재는 물론이지만, 더욱이 신앙의 부재 때문이라고 진단할 수 있습니다.
출처 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erik-stegman/american-indian-poverty-a_b_1855933.html
American Indian Poverty and thePotential of Focusing on Education
Erik Stegman
Posted: 09/05/2012 9:00 am
My great-grandfather grew up poor on a smallAssiniboine Indian reservation in rural Saskatchewan, but eventually ended upas one of the first employed typesetters for the Chicago Sun Times when itopened its doors. Our family still has some of his original line type, withwhich he printed so many historic turn-of-the-century headlines. Although thenewspaper gave him the opportunity to provide a good life for his family andmany friends even during the Great Depression, his story was always one ofescaping poverty -- a story that is still all too common for American Indiansand Alaska Natives (AIAN) today. Even after making it to Chicago from the rez,most of my great-grandfather's friends ended up in the very same hellishstockyards described by Upton Sinclair in The Jungle. If we asked himhow a poor Native kid on the reservation could end up holding down a good joband finding economic security for his family today, I think his answer would bethe same as it was then: education.
As of 2010, over a quarter of AIAN people in ourcountry lived in poverty (28.4 percent). This compares to 15.3 percent nationally. Much has been written anddocumented about what poverty on a reservation looks like, but little attentionhas been paid to real solutions. "Poverty" may be a simple word, butthere are many reasons that Americans end up trapped by it. For Native people,the solutions are sometimes even more complex because of the special legal obligationsowed to them by the federal government as a result of long-standing treatiesand federal Indian policy. Even though many levers exist with the potential torelieve poverty among the AIAN population, education is one area where thefederal government itself has the immediate power to focus its resources andleverage change in these communities.
Our federal government runs two large schooldistricts -- one of them is considered one of the best education agencies inthe country, the other one of the worst. The Department of Defense EducationActivity (DoDEA) is a premiere education agency serving about 84,000 childrenof our armed forces around the world. In 2007, 47 percent of the students inDoDEA schools were minorities and half of them were living at the poverty line.This doesn't usually bode well for graduation statistics in our country, butthe DoDEA system had a 97 percent high school graduation ratehttp://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/issues349.shtmlthat same year with the majority of its graduates pursuing higher education.
And the worst: the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE),part of the U.S. Department of Interior. The BIE serves about 41,000 AIANchildren in 23 states. Most AIAN children are actually served by publicschools, but BIE schools serve as the main source of education for manyenrolled tribal members on reservations as part of the federal government'streaty obligation to tribal members. The statistics for this federal educationsystem don't even come close to comparing to the defense system. In 2010, thehigh school graduation rate for BIE schools was 58 percent. Native kids in BIE schools can't even rely on abasic level of school safety. BIE school safety was such a problem that theSenate Committee on Indian Affairs held an oversight hearing about it in 2010 responding to a reportfinding that more than 60 percent of BIE administrators reported havingat least one building that was inadequate to operate as a school. And, how cana bureau charged with educating 41,000 Native children do its job well whenit's competing inside the same agency as the mining and geological services?It's time for a change.
As our country continues to recover from the GreatRecession, improving education outcomes for Native kids on reservations wouldbe a huge step forward in moving Native people from being one of the mostimpoverished groups in the country to being part of our nation's future sharedprosperity. While 70 percent of adults (age 25 or older) with incomes belowpoverty threshold have at least a high school diploma or equivalent, adultswithout a high school diploma are much more likely than other adults toexperience income poverty. If you're a student in a BIE school looking at agraduation rate that barely breaks half of your senior class enrollment, yourchance of staying in poverty is much higher. This is why education is one ofthe key indicators that we track for Half in Ten, our campaign to cut povertyin half in 10 years.
Poverty always kept my great grandfather fromreturning to his community on the rez. He performed ceremonies for his otherNative friends in his basement in Chicago, a basement he could afford becauseof his education. Too many Native people today are still escaping poverty, andthus, escaping their communities and culture in search of economicopportunities. Although improving education certainly isn't the only path topoverty reduction for AIAN people, it is one where the federal governmentalready has the control and models it needs to make tremendous strides. Evenmore important, providing quality education is both a legal and sacredobligation of the federal government to Indian tribes, rooted in treaties andthe U.S. constitution.
The federal government needs to make improving Nativeeducation a serious priority. If it can provide a top-notch education to thechildren of our nation's military families, why can't the same be said forchildren in tribal communities? Whatever the path, the federal government can,and should, change its approach to Indian education. As our nation's executivein chief, federal Indian education is also an area where our President canreally make a difference, whoever holds office next year. Like otherminorities, AIAN people struggle most with poverty. But, as members of tribalgovernments, AIAN children also have unique opportunities to build their localeconomies, serve in tribal leadership, and help the rest of our nation'seconomy get back on track in the future.
This post is part of the HuffPost Shadow Conventions2012, a series spotlighting three issues that are not being discussed at thenational GOP and Democratic conventions: The Drug War, Poverty in America, andMoney in Politics.
HuffPost Live will be taking a comprehensive look atthe persistence of poverty in America August 29th and September 5th from 12-4pm ET and 6-10 pm ET. Click here tocheck it out -- and join the conversation.