Wednesday, April 16, 2025 — Is it the end of civil rights complaints in schools?

The Trump administration scrapped a civil rights agreement 14 years in the making with the Rapid City, S.D. school system. The agreement was aimed at correcting inequities for Native American students. Data show Native students in the district are given harsher punishments than their white counterparts. The students also are less likely to be in higher level classes. The decision comes as President Donald Trump has terminated nearly half of the federal Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights staff.

We’ll also look at a Virginia tribe’s suit against the commonwealth for what the tribe says is withholding Medicaid reimbursements for tribal citizens’ health care.

GUESTS

Walt Swan Jr. (Miniconjou Lakota), Rapid City Area Schools board member and executive director of Friends of the Children – He Sapa

Tyresha Grey Horse (Oglala Lakota), chair of Title VI Parent Advisory Committee for Rapid City Area Schools and program director of Friends of the Children – He Sapa

Sarah White (Oglala Lakota), executive director of the South Dakota Education Equity Coalition

Thomas Badamo (Nansemond), tribal council treasurer for the Nansemond Indian Nation

 Jessie Barrington (Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians), attorney with Cultural Heritage Partners

Break 1 Music: Pocupine Singers’ Song (song) Porcupine Singers (artist) Alowanpi – Songs Of Honoring – Lakota Classics: Past & Present, Vol. 1 (album)

Break 2 Music: Learned from the Late Ralph Kotay (song) Kenneth Cozad & Group (artist) Songs of Our Old People – Old-Time Round Dance Songs of Oklahoma (album)