NM governor wants $50 million for tribal education

Yahoo

28-01-2025

Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, sits in his office in the Roundhouse on Jan. 22, 2025. Credit: Bella Davis/New Mexico In Depth
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is seeking $50 million for educational programs for Indigenous children in the next fiscal year, and she wants most of it to go directly to tribes, getting rid of a grant process that's prevented tribal officials from making full use of state funding.
The move comes after years of advocacy at the Roundhouse for the Tribal Remedy Framework, a plan for giving Indigenous children an education that incorporates their cultural experiences and knowledge and results in better academic outcomes.
This story was originally published by New Mexico In Depth
Indigenous education experts and tribal communities created the framework in the wake of the 2018 Yazzie-Martinez court ruling, in which a state judge found New Mexico had failed to provide a sufficient education to a majority of students, including Indigenous children. (In September, the plaintiffs filed a motion arguing the state hasn't complied with the ruling.)
'To push back on decades worth of bad federal policy and state paternalism that sought to assimilate our people and take away our languages and take away how we learn, it's been a fight,' said Derrick Lente, a Democrat from Sandia Pueblo who's run a number of tribal education bills over the past eight years. 'But now there seems to be an appreciation about, yes, in fact, tribes do know what's best for their children.'
The governor's $10.9 billion budget recommendation includes, like last year, $20 million in recurring funding to the Indian Education Fund, set up by the 2003 New Mexico Indian Education Act. But she's also proposing an additional, nonrecurring $30 million per year to the fund over the next three years, according to spokesperson Michael Coleman.
The Public Education Department (PED) is working to change the way that funding would make its way to tribes and how much they'd get.
Under a proposed rule change, 70% of the fund would be allocated to tribes automatically, said KatieAnn Juanico (Acoma Pueblo), the assistant secretary of PED's Indian Education Division. The rest would go to local education agencies and Bureau of Indian Education tribally-controlled schools, which, unlike tribes, would still need to apply for grants from the fund.
A distribution formula for tribes, Juanico said, factors in student counts and students with an individualized education plan.
The department is accepting feedback from tribal leaders, she said.
The proposal, if approved, would alter the existing system in which tribes can apply for one or two-year grants and, if approved, must first spend the money from their own coffers before applying for reimbursement from the state. Challenges including slow processing by PED and understaffing in tribal departments have made it difficult for tribes to spend the total amounts and develop long-term projects.
Last year, Lente co-sponsored a bill that sought to change that, sending funds out to tribes automatically and allowing them to carry over any unspent dollars. The House Education Committee passed the bill but it didn't get another hearing.
And during the two previous legislative sessions, Lente, along with four other Indigenous lawmakers, sponsored a bill to create a trust fund that would've earned interest for tribes to spend on language revitalization, career readiness, and other education initiatives.
Lujan Grisham said last year she supported the idea, and the state budget lawmakers sent to her desk included $50 million for the trust fund, conditional on the bill being enacted. The House passed the bill unanimously, but Lente pulled it after learning several amendments were going to be introduced on the Senate floor.
Before this year's session, Lente said, he sat down with Native advocates and education experts who make up a coalition called the Tribal Education Alliance to talk about potential legislation.
'I had to take a step back and really just have a heart-to-heart with all of them and say, 'It seems like now [PED] is speaking our language. They're saying the things that we used to have to argue with them about, and the Legislature understands it much better than ever before.' We still have to advocate, don't get me wrong, but in terms of the heavy lifting, we weren't doing much of that heavy lifting,' Lente said.
He's supporting the governor's budget request and the rule change, rather than pushing his own bill through the Legislature.
During her address last week, Lujan Grisham thanked 'the leaders of our sovereign nations and many legislators who have been working all year long to figure out that vehicle and provide a proposal to the Legislature that we believe will have enormous, bipartisan support.'
Lujan Grisham credited Lente by name.
'While I've been the talking piece legislatively, I know that I've always simply been a part of the larger team,' Lente told New Mexico In Depth. 'That includes the tribal nations, all of those tribal education advocates, the students, the parents, the administrators, the list can go on and on, but in terms of where we were and where we're at today, it's truly been one of the honors of my political career to be a part of this.'