The race is on: Get the tribal trust fund done

With unanimous approval in the New Mexico House of Representatives, the groundbreaking Tribal Education Trust Fund is in the Senate with only a few days to go before the legislative session ends.

Approving the trust fund and getting the legislation to the governor must be a priority in the waning days of this 30-day session. Not only will establishing a trust fund address concerns from the Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit, it embraces the entire tribal community in a manner that will include Native culture and values as never before.

Groundbreaking, indeed. Currently, $50 million is appropriated to the fund in the current state budget, although legislation sponsors would like to see another $50 million added in the Senate to create the full $100 million endowment they are seeking in the legislation. This should be a priority in the Senate, with full funding of the trust fund separate from any capital outlay dollars slated for tribal communities.

The lawsuit, as we all remember, was filed against the state of New Mexico, successfully claiming it had failed in its constitutional duty to adequately fund public education. The courts agreed, ruling that the state was falling short in its obligation to Native, Black, Hispanic and Asian students, as well as English language learners and students with disabilities. Since the decision in 2018, billions of dollars have been spent in an attempt to correct past deficiencies.

For Native students, the gap is particularly wide, and Indian education advocates have been dissatisfied with the Public Education Department’s efforts to address the problem comprehensively. Their solution is the Tribal Education Fund, House Bill 134. Sponsors are Reps. Derrick J. Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo; Anthony Allison, D-Fruitland; Charlotte Little, D-Albuquerque; Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque; and D. Wonda Johnson, D-Rehoboth.

With a properly funded trust fund, the flow of money would be predictable and many of the decisions about education of

Native students would be made within tribal communities. Some 5% of the trust fund’s five-year average market value would be distributed annually, with decisions about how to spend the money made through a tribally developed funding formula.

The trust fund not only meets the state’s constitutional obligation to Native children, it does so in a manner that embraces tribal sovereignty. Already, the 23 Pueblo, Apache and Navajo tribes have developed a Tribal Remedy Framework to bring about better educational outcomes. Programs are in place, whether to offer individual tutoring, after-school programming or support Indigenous language instruction. Now, the flow of money won’t change depending on the price of oil or who has been elected governor. Programming can be expanded, too, with money allocated to wherever Native students are being educated.

For Native families in New Mexico, this approach to education would be a sharp break from policies of the past focused on assimilation and elimination of culture. Native leaders would develop the best solutions and have the money to carry out the necessary work.

In a time of division, the 68-0 vote — bipartisan and unanimous — in the House is a signal that important work can be accomplished with all hands on deck. The Senate should take up this important legislation quickly and send it to the governor. And when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham receives this visionary legislation, we look forward to a grand signing ceremony, with speeches in Tiwa, Towa, Tewa, Keres, Apache, Diné and any other Native languages spoken in our state. As co-sponsor Lente said about this proposal: “This would be the first of its kind in the nation and speaks volumes of the willingness of this body to take a bold step in making this investment to support our tribal sovereign nations build their human capacity and implement programs in the communities their children live.”

The first of its kind. Get it done.