PIERRE, S.D. – For the past several years, bills requesting funding from state coffers for tribal colleges in South Dakota have been defeated.

A rejuvenated bill asked this year to have the state provide funding for non-beneficiary students who attend tribal colleges. Non-beneficiary students are defined as any student who is not an enrolled member of a federally recognized American Indian tribe.

This year’s attempt asked for $500,000 to be distributed among the tribal colleges for the non-beneficiary students. The federal government provides funding for enrolled students. This year, however, a continuing resolution kept funding at the previous rate when colleges had planned for an increase.

”Right now for our college we have put a freeze on hiring of staff. We had earmarked an increase, but Congress went with the continuing resolution,” said Tom Short Bull, president of Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Tribal colleges, many times located in remote areas not close to other colleges, provide an education benefit to their region and their reservations. Proponents of state funding assert that the colleges are a benefit to the state as a whole.

”We are an entity that helps get people off the welfare rolls: that in itself ought to be a reason to fund this proposal,” Short Bull told the Senate Appropriations Committee.

”Second, we do a great job of educating our non-Indian students that attend. We produce teachers and nurses,” he said.

The strongest opposition to the bill came from the state board of regents. The board argued that they would have no jurisdiction over the tribal colleges even though the board would be responsible for distributing the funds. The board’s argument was based on the state’s constitution, which was disputed by the proponents of the bill.

Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation has graduated more than 1,600 students since it was chartered and the majority of those students are teaching in various schools across the state.

”Some students have made a significant impact in the state,” said Sherry Red Owl, a Sinte Gleska University administrator.

”Some of our students find it almost impossible to go away to state schools. Many are single moms, TANF recipients and 45 percent are GED graduates. This has an economic impact for the state of South Dakota,” Red Owl said.

Tribal colleges have always struggled with nonrestricted funding, the funding that comes from tuition and fees. Funding from the state would have gone into the nonrestricted funding account.

Jerry Apa, Republican Senate delegate and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the issue surrounding the potential passage of the measure was more about setting a precedence. He cited the creation last year of learning centers in the state without state assistance for students.

”This is not an issue of equality, it is an issue of setting precedence; in my mind, that is a valid issue,” Apa said.

The precedence being that the state would then be asked to support those students taking advantage of the learning centers.

”My heart says, ‘I want to vote for this’; my head, as an appropriator, says, ‘You can’t do that today,”’ Apa said.

A parallel bill passed the North Dakota Legislature that would provide $700,000 for the tribal colleges in support of the non-beneficiary students.

The state of Montana has a similar funding mechanism for the tribal colleges.