While the tuition waiver applied to only a few dozen students when the was first formed, today Colorado has provided more than 31,539 Native American Tuition Waivers to about 15,770 students from 351 tribal governments.<\/p>\n
The high rate of enrollment at FLC, while positive, has also placed the financial burden of covering the tuition waivers on the state of Colorado. The proposed legislation would transfer the responsibility for out-of-state Native American and Alaska Natives onto the Department of Education, instead of individual states.<\/p>\n
The passage of the bill is particularly important to Colorado Rep. Scott Tipton, a graduate of FLC.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, there are costs associated with it that the state of Colorado is having to take up,\u201d Tipton said in an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cThe federal government made the and should be helping to fulfill it.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill, according to Tipton, would ask for $19.7 million from the federal government to cover the costs of out-of-state tuition waivers.<\/p>\n In the past decade, the school has seen an uptick in Native American students from outside of Colorado, increasing the diversity throughout the college. \u201cTo be able to have Native American students from all 50 states is something we\u2019re proud of and something that\u2019s really important for our area,\u201d Tipton said.<\/p>\n