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WASHINGTON - President Clinton and the first lady unveiled several new education initiatives taken from the proposed FY 2000 budget that would help tribes and tribal organizations build and renovate BIA schools and bring thousands of new teachers into classrooms serving American Indian and Alaska Native students.

The vice president also called on Congress to approve the plan which would help states build and renovate public schools nationwide. The plan would have the Secretary of Interior allocate $400 million in School Modernization Bonds to tribes or tribal organizations.

Two-thirds of BIA schools are more than 30 years old and one-quarter of them are more than 50 years old. They generally are in much poorer condition-unsafe physically and environmentally- than other schools.

"This is part of an overall effort to get well-qualified teachers into the classrooms," said William Cohen, special assistant to the president on education policy.

In addition, a new $10 million initiative will help recruit and train 1,000 Native teachers who commit to teach in schools with high concentrations of Native students.

The president's initiative to get more Native American teachers into Indian schools responds to the need in Indian Country's schools where only two-thirds of American Indian students successfully complete high school.

Currently, only 1 percent of the country's more than 2 million teachers are American Indians or Alaska Natives, according to the recent Inter-agency Plan for the Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives. The plan was developed following President Clinton's Executive Order on American Indian and Alaska Native Education last August.

"This one percent is even more significant when you consider that many of those Native American teachers who make up this one percent teach outside Indian communities," said David Beaulieu, director of the office of Indian education at the U.S. Department of Education.

The president's education initiatives still have to pass through the Congressional appropriations process. If approved, funding for the programs would become available after October 1.