·         NCAI Announces Policy Priorities for the 2012 White House Tribal Nations Summit

·         Tribal Nations Send Strong Message to Congress on the “Fiscal Cliff”

·         Department of Education Seeks Comments on Native American Career and Technical Education Program (Deadline: December 20)

·         BIE Advisory Board for Exceptional Children Meeting (January 10-11)

·         Native Children's Research Exchange Scholars Program (Deadline: December 10)

·         Other News and Commentary

·         Trends, Data, and Reports

In preparation for the 2012 White House Tribal Nations Summit this Wednesday, December 5, in Washington, DC, NCAI has released a briefing book for tribal leaders outlining Indian Country’s policy priorities for the next administration.

·         Download the framing paper of top priority asks

·         Download the full briefing book

·         Download the schedule of events

·         View more information on the White House Tribal Nations Summit

NCAI developed its policy priorities for education in partnership with the National Indian Education Association. To promote excellence in Native education, Indian Country offers the following recommendations to the Obama Administration for the next four years:

Support passage of the Native CLASS Act. Indian Country needs strong, concerted, and sustained support to pass the Native Culture, Language, and Access for Success in Schools Act (CLASS) in Congress. While not a fix-all, the Native CLASS Act addresses many of the systemic problems in Native education and includes the following tribal priorities:

·         Strengthen tribal control of education: Tribes should be granted the authority and funds to build capacity for their education departments in the same ways that are provided to states and districts. The Native CLASS Act authorizes tribes to operate ESEA title programs in schools that are located on Indian lands and serve predominantly Native students.

·         Preserve and revitalize Native languages: The survival of Native languages and cultures is essential to the success of our communities and ways of life. Because immersion is largely recognized as the best way to learn a language, the Native CLASS Act establishes a grant program to develop and maintain Native language immersion programs.

·         Provide tribes with access to tribal member student records: The Native CLASS Act expressly grants tribes and tribal education agencies (TEAs) access to tribal student academic records in the same way that local educational agencies have access. Tribes and their education agencies are in the best position to track and coordinate Native student data.

·         Encourage tribal/state partnership: The Native CLASS Act requires states and local educational agencies to consult with tribes when developing applications for various ESEA title programs.

Reissue the Executive Order on Tribal Colleges and Universities. Executive Order 13592, which established the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, was a step in the right direction for Native education. However, tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) previously had a stand-alone Executive Order and their own initiative, which Executive Order 13592 rescinded and folded into a single Executive Order on broader Native education. Tribal leaders and Native educators did not request this change, and the net result has been less effort focused on strengthening TCUs. This Administration should reissue the separate Executive Order and Initiative on TCUs, sufficiently fund both programs so they may meet their mandates, and direct that the two Initiatives work together. Current Executive Orders on African American education and historically black colleges and universities already do this for other students. American Indian and Alaska Native students deserve no less.

Reaffirm and acknowledge the Department of Education’s federal trust responsibility for American Indian and Alaska Native students. The President issued his Executive Memorandum regarding implementation of Executive Order 13175, Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments, in November 2009. The Department of Education has yet to release its consultation policy. As a result, tribes are still fighting for a seat at the table—both with the Department and states—in developing meaningful education policy for Native students. The Department must ensure that tribes are key stakeholders and that it consults with tribes prior to the development of regulations that will affect how Native students and schools are funded.

Click here to view a PDF of Indian Country’s education priorities. For more information, please contact Katie Jones at kjones@ncai.org.

Native leaders are weighing in on the effect the fiscal cliff will have on the 566 federally recognized tribal nations and American Indian and Alaska Native citizens. A joint tribal letter sent last week to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, signed by the National Congress of American Indians and 65 tribes and tribal organizations, outlines the risk of deep sequestration cuts to the already underfunded federal responsibilities to tribal nations.

The letter to Senate and House leaders identified exactly how cuts would impact Indian Country and called for leadership to secure and protect tribal communities by upholding commitments to health care, education, public safety, energy development, and infrastructure like housing, roads, and broadband, which are all in the non-defense discretionary portion of the federal budget. The letter outlines where cuts would impact specific American Indian and Alaska Native programs.

Using the estimate of 8.2% reductions just for the first year of sequestration, many tribal programs will face difficult reductions below FY2010 levels, when adjusted for inflation. NCAI estimates that if sequestration were implemented, the percentage cuts from fiscal-year 2010 Native education programs (when adjusted for inflation) would be: