Cherokee Nation tag money help NE Oklahoma schools

Oklahoma school districts received more than $200-million last year from vehicle tags sold through the state. <br><br>Now that Native American tribes issue their own tags, you might expect an even bigger

Thursday, November 21st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Oklahoma school districts received more than $200-million last year from vehicle tags sold through the state.

Now that Native American tribes issue their own tags, you might expect an even bigger dent in money paid to schools. News on Six anchor Tami Marler says Oklahoma's largest Indian nation has made a pretty big commitment to help schools in our area, but it's going to take a little effort from parents.

More than 330 students at Sequoyah High School represent 24 Indian nations from all over America. They come to Sequoyah because it's the top-rated Native American school in the nation. The federal government funds it, so it's not subject to the budget cuts facing state-funded schools. "I know the state's in a pretty difficult time right now with funding. We are in a situation where we've kind of took some cuts in the past so we're trying to kind of come out of that." Gina Stanley says Sequoyah is about to get a boost from the Cherokee Nation, where most of her students come from.

"As of now, we're anticipating in the neighborhood of around 24,000; that will be generated for our school system.â€ The money will come from more than 20,000 car tags sold by the Cherokees in the last year.

It seems every day on the news we hear about schools that have to make budget cuts, teachers and other personnel being laid off. Mike Miller says the Cherokee Nation has an internal law that will benefit public schools in its jurisdiction. "Cherokee students go to public schools here in Northeastern Oklahoma, and so the first provision of that law is 38% of the funding goes directly to the schools that educate Cherokee children."

Miller says a total of $1.3-million will go to schools like Sequoyah. He estimates 30,000 Cherokee children in northeastern Oklahoma could benefit from the money, as long as they're members of the tribe. "In this climate with funding right now it's hard for schools to make ends meet, but this is going to allow us to do some things that are in addition to what we do with our normal operating budget.â€