More dollars and autonomy needed.

Half of Native youth in some school districts do not have internet access

SANTA FE — Indian education advocates say state officials are finally starting to speak their language.

That’s not an Indigenous language — many of which are spoken by New Mexico’s 23 tribes — but rather a common vocabulary for sweeping education reform outlined by tribal governments in a document called the “tribal remedy framework,” last updated in 2019, which calls for more dollars and autonomy in how they are spent.

Earlier this month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration mentioned the tribal remedy framework in a line item of its budget request to the state legislature for lawmakers to consider in coming months.

Details will be hashed out in negotiations during the coming legislative session. The most contentious questions are how much do we spend on Indigenous education programs, who will control the funding, and what specific needs will be targeted?

The pandemic has laid bare the inequitable infrastructure that initially left half of the Native American youth in some school districts without internet access.

The crisis came as Native American youth were already lagging behind their peers. Younger students trail in reading and math — around 20% third-grade proficiency compared to 30% proficiency of all third-graders in 2019. Only 69% of Indigenous high school students graduate within 4 years. That’s improved over the past ten years, but is still below the state average, which is among the lowest in the country.

State courts have found that education funding for at-risk students, including Native Americans, is constitutionally deficient. Lujan Grisham tried to have the suit tossed last year, but was denied. Last November, another ruling found that funding of such capital projects as school construction creates unconstitutional disparities.

A federal court ruled that state education funding formulas unfairly disadvantaged school districts with large areas of tribal or federal land.

In January, Lujan Grisham’s budget recommendation included $15 million in Native Americanfocused funding that could be used for teacher training, recruitment and curriculum development each year for the next two years.

But the proposed budget of $15 million is a far cry from the tribal remedy framework document created collaboratively by the state’s 23 tribes.

That plan recommends 20 new programs and over $100 million in specific spending on, for example, internet infrastructure. It recommends such things as recruiting Native American school administrators. It lays out policy changes on student discipline and communication with state agencies that wouldn’t cost anything, but would change governance and tribal-state relations on education.

“It is really important that the tribal remedy framework title or the notion of a tribal remedy framework is not one where the administration hijacks the title and hopes that we don’t call them out when the tribal remedy framework for them means something else than (what) it means for us,” says Rep. Derrick Lente, of Sandia Pueblo.

His district west of Santa Fe covers seven of the state’s 23 tribal nations, including five chapters of the Navajo Nation.

Lente has put forward three bills modeled on the tribal remedy framework. Two call for a combined $58 million in yearly funding for K-12 and college programs, as well as curriculum development and maintenance.

A third bill echoing the framework calls for a onetime investment of $95 million for a tribal library and school internet infrastructure.

Despite the gap between his proposed $153 million and the $15 million called for by Lujan Grisham, Lente says he’s seen some compromise following discussions with the administration, which initially had suggested $5 million.

“I am hopeful that we are moving in the right direction with the increased budget,” Lente said.

A fourth bill would appropriate $11 million in recurring funding for scholars at UNM to develop and maintain curricula for Indigenous languages.