·         Action Alert: Call Senator Barrasso about Reauthorizing the Esther Martinez Native Languages Preservation Act

·         White House Announces 4th Annual Tribal Nations Summit

·         Current Issues in Education Policy: Sequestration and the Impact of the Election

o   Resources and News

o   Native Vote Election Analysis Webinar Recap

o   NCAI Joins 146 National Groups in Outlining Priorities to Avoid the "Fiscal Cliff"

·         USDA Announces $3.3 Million for Tribal Colleges and Universities

·         Other News and Commentary

·         Trends, Data, and Reports

The Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act, which provides tribes with critical support to establish and maintain immersion programs that revitalize Native languages, is currently up for reauthorization.

Both the Senate and House introduced reauthorization bills in September 2012. The Senate bill (S.3546, introduced by Senator Johnson) swiftly passed out of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs just one week after being introduced and is currently pending floor action. The House bill (H.R.6399, introduced by Representative Heinrich) has been referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The bills provide a clean reauthorization and do not make any substantive changes to the Esther Martinez program.

NCAI is confident that with bipartisan support, Congress can pass the reauthorization during the lame duck session. Right now, the bill needs the support of Senator Barrassso (R-WY), vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, to pass out of the Senate.

Action Requested:

Please call Senator Barrasso's office today at (202) 224-6441 and ask him to co-sponsor S.3546. Also, e-mail Senator Barrasso and explain how the Esther Martinez program helps Native communities support student success.

More Information:

For more information on the Esther Martinez reauthorization, see the Esther Martinez - NCAI Support Document. Contact Katie Jones at kjones@ncai.org with any questions.

Yesterday, the White House announced that the 4th Annual White House Tribal Nations Summit will be held on Wednesday, December 5th, 2012. During the Summit, tribal leaders from across the nation will once again convene in Washington, DC to discuss key tribal priorities with high-level members of the Obama administration.

As in past years, NCAI will co-host a Tribal Leaders Preparatory Meeting on Tuesday, December 4th from 5-7pm. The meeting will be at the Four Points Sheraton. NCAI will also host a tribal leader preparatory teleconference on Friday, November 30th at 1pm Eastern to assist tribal leaders in preparing for the Summit. 

The Tribal Nations Summit continues to serve as one of the leading forums for direct and substantive dialogue between tribal leaders and key administration officials. The voice of every tribal nation is crucial in this dialogue and we hope you will join us in the nation's capital for this important opportunity.

For a recap of last year's meeting and to review the 2011 tribal leader's briefing book, please visit the 2011 Tribal Leaders Conference Event Page on NCAI.org.

Education Week’s Politics K-12 blog has some excellent coverage on how sequestration and the election will impact education. See the below articles for more information:

·         Fiscal Cliff Cheat Sheet: 10 Frequently Asked Questions

·         Postelection, Kline Talks ESEA Renewal, Fiscal Cliff, and Bipartisanship

·         Five Issues Facing Arne Duncan in a Second Term

·         Congress Likely to Stay Divided, Will Gridlock on K-12 Continue?

Overall, given the results of the election, the initial consensus in Washington DC is that waivers will dominate the education policy landscape for the next year or two. Congress has stalled in reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) because the issue has become increasingly polarized and partisan. The election has not done much to change the situation. Because Democrats continue to lead the Senate and Republicans the House, leadership on each chamber’s respective education committee is not expected to change. Many education policy commentators project that the result will be a continued stalemate on ESEA reauthorization and an increased focus on waivers. As such, it is more important than ever that tribes be engaged partners during the waiver application and implementation processes, and NCAI will continue to press for more meaningful tribal participation.

Native Voters turned out in a big way this year, making key differences in important races. During last week's post-election webinar, the Native Vote campaign reported on preliminary results of this unprecedented turnout. Click here to download the presentation.

The Post-Election Webinar underscored the bipartisan opportunity presented by the election results. NCAI Executive Director, Jacqueline Pata, noted on the webinar that "just two years ago, we were outlining the path that a commonsense moderate Republican, from my own state of Alaska, [Senator Lisa Murkowski] took to engage tribes and ultimately win an historic reelection." In 2012, we saw Native people support the President's reelection, candidates in close Senate races, and leading members of the House, like Chickasaw citizen, Congressman Tom Cole. These candidates were all successful in part because of their strong engagement with tribal nations.

The 113^th Congress will seek a bipartisan tone and Indian Country is ready to move our priorities forward with our champions on both sides of the aisle.

The Native Vote made a key difference in the North Dakota Senate race. Senator-elect Heidi Heitkamp's victory was won by 2,994 votes. Her net vote gain in the three counties with reservations and high Native population was 4,282. Jacqueline Pata, NCAI Executive Director said on the Post Election Webinar, "She won the Native Vote because she is a commonsense moderate who has worked closely with tribes as Attorney General and understands the importance of our nation-to-nation relationship."

The House of Representatives, thanks to Oklahoma, now has two Native members of Congress: Tom Cole (R) who easily won re-election and now Markwayne Mullin (R), an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation who won the open seat to replace retiring Congressman Dan Boren (D).  

Congressman Tom Cole, Chickasaw citizen and co-chair of the House Native American Caucus, won 68% of the overall vote. Congressman-elect Markwayne Mullin won his race with 57% (143,253) of the votes in Oklahoma's 2^nd Congressional District. The 2^nd District has one of the highest percentages of Native voters in the country. 

Incumbent Senator John Tester was re-elected by a narrow margin with help from the Native Vote. Senator Tester acknowledged before the election that his success would be built on turnout on Montana's Indian reservations and Native voters rewarded the Senator for his close engagement with tribal nations.  

Last week, NCAI joined 146 national organizations—including the National American Indian Housing Council, the National Indian Health Board, and the National Indian Child Welfare Association—on a letter outlining priorities for President Obama and Congress to avoid the "fiscal cliff."

The letter outlines five priorities for any budget agreement:

·         Creating jobs and growing the economy

·         No cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security benefits, or shifting costs to beneficiaries or the states.

·         No cuts to the safety net and vital services.

·         Stopping the sequester.

·         Requiring the wealthiest and corporations to pay their fair share, starting with ending tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced that 21 projects in eight states have been funded through the Tribal College Initiative Grant program to make campus improvements and provide outreach and educational offerings.

The USDA Rural Development Tribal College Grant program provides land-grant institutions with funds for outreach and education services to help meet the needs of American Indian and Alaska Native communities. The $3.3 million in grants will help tribal colleges finance infrastructure improvements, purchase equipment, and develop essential community facilities.

For example, in Brimley, Michigan, Bay Mills Community College has been selected to receive a grant to help construct an Early Childhood Education Learning lab building. In Mission, South Dakota, Sinte Gleska University has been selected to receive a grant to renovate the North Campus college science center, classroom, and a computer lab. Nebraska's Little Priest Tribal College will receive funds to help construct an educational facility with classrooms for science, math, writing, speech and other courses.

Click here to view a complete listing of which tribal colleges received this grant.

·         Hundreds of School Districts Apply for $400 Million Race to the Top-District Competition: This week, the US Department of Education announced it received 371 applications – representing more than 1,100 school districts – for the Race to the Top-District competition.

·         Oklahoma Eyes Consolidation for Small, Rural Schools: In an effort to reduce education spending, Oklahoma is considering consolidating small, rural schools, many of which serve Native communities.

·         Navajo Charter School First in Nation to Be Off Electric Grid: The STAR Charter School is a 130-student preschool through eighth-grade school about 30 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona. It's on the southwest corner of the Navajo Nation and mostly serves rural students. It appears to be the first solar- and wind-powered public school in the country.

·         Higher Education on the Crow Reservation (Part 1 and Part 2): Little Big Horn College is changing the future of education on the Crow Reservation in Montana.

·         White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education Launches New Website: This new website features information on the Initiative’s work for Native students. It includes highlights, events, grants, scholarships, and internships.

·         The Rules We Play By: Who Makes the Rules? Rural Policy Matters explores the laws that govern local public schools and the ways that public policy affects local schools.

·         Tribal Language Report (Office of Head Start): In 2010–11, the Office of Head Start (OHS) began an effort to learn about the successes, progress, and challenges faced by a number of large and small tribal communities in various stages of preserving, revitalizing, or reclaiming their tribal language. This report is not meant to be a comprehensive review of tribal language efforts. Rather, this report provides illustrative examples of tribal language efforts around the country and discusses the recommendations and implications for OHS.

·         Alaskan Schools: What Matters to Students? (Association of Alaska School Boards): Through a series of focus groups with about 280 students—engaged and disengaged, rural and urban, Alaska Native and non-Native, middle and high school-aged, and students who have recently dropped out—young people from 26 schools in four districts (Anchorage, Juneau, Lower Kuskokwim, and Yukon-Koyukuk), shared their perspectives on a series of questions about what matters to Alaska Native and non-Native students. These questions include: What makes a school a place where students want to be and do well? Why do students stay in school or drop out? What do students believe that schools can do to help them succeed? An 8-page summary is also available.

·         Teacher Absence as a Leading Indicator of Student Achievement (Center for American Progress): This report uses the Civil Rights Data Collection dataset released in early 2012 to raise questions and drive debate about the subject of teacher absence. This dataset comes from the first national survey to include school-level information on teacher absence. The measure constructed from this information is the percentage of teachers who were absent more than 10 times during the year. The Department of Education calls the measure a “leading indicator,” a reasonable label given the documented relationship between absence rates measured at the teacher level and student achievement.