Tribal Colleges and Universities founded to serve Native American students across America could face crippling federal budget cuts under the Trump administration’s proposed 2027 budget.
Education officials warn that if the budget is approved by Congress, schools would be forced to close within a year.
Cheryl Crazy Bull, president and CEO of the Denver-based American Indian College Fund, said the proposed cuts do not align with the administration’s priorities to support rural America and expand access to higher education. She noted that most tribal colleges and universities are in rural areas and serve entire communities.
"Farmers and ranchers, small businesses. They're training teachers, they're training healthcare workers. They're actually training a lot of agriculture workers," she said. "So they're doing a lot of things that shore up rural communities."
This is the second budget proposed by the Trump administration that called for cutting funding for tribal colleges and universities, or TCUs, which have traditionally had strong bipartisan support. The administration has argued that cuts to social programs, including education, are necessary to eliminate fraud and waste and to shrink the size of the federal government.
Crazy Bull said cutting TCU funding would not create meaningful federal savings, but would eliminate a small investment that delivers outsized economic and community impact. She said consistent and robust federal funding for education, health and welfare, and safety-net programs is essential to ensure that Tribal students and communities are not left behind.
"That's actually where taxpayers want their dollars to go," she said, "is to support people in communities and institutions that serve communities.
The nation’s 34 TCUs serve 12% of all American Indian and Alaska Native people who attend college. More than 74% of students graduate and work in their communities.
Crazy Bull said TCUs are education lifelines for entire generations and can't be allowed to disappear.
"An education at a Tribal college is a place where your identity is honored," she said, "and you have the opportunity to get an education that you can provide for yourself and your family.'
Wisconsin has two tribal colleges, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University in Hayward and the College of Menominee Nation in Keshena.
Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
