The paper demonstrated the need for American Indian involvement in the education policies affecting Indian children in Alaska. It analyzed the method that the State of Alaska used to fund schools for native children and the administration of the Johnson-O'Malley (JOM) Program by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Alaska is in a unique educational…

Alaska's public schools cost $1.2 billion in the 1992-93 school year. That included both operating and capital spending and amounted to about $10,000 for each of the state's 119,000 elementary and secondary students. Roughly one-quarter of the state government's general fund budget went to the schools, covering 64 percent of costs. About 30…