Since the beginning of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration, New Mexico’s education agencies and the Indian Affairs Department have built meaningful government-to-government relations and worked closely with tribes and pueblos to meet the needs of Indigenous students, educators and communities.
Making sure tribal consultation and community participation are key parts of everything state education agencies do has allowed us to enact measures that build on the strengths of Native American students adequately reflect Indigenous history, knowledge and language in the classroom; and lead to the recruitment and retention of qualified educators with academic and cultural knowledge.
Creating a truly equitable cradle to career education system also means collaborating across state government. Working together with Lujan Grisham and in consultation and partnership with tribal communities, our agencies are joining forces to address challenges facing Native American students and educators across early childhood, K-12 and higher education.
The Early Childhood Education and Care Department will establish a first-of-its-kind Early Childhood Tribal Advisory Coalition this year to inform strategies for supporting children in Tribal communities. ECE CD’s earlier work with local Indigenous knowledge experts from the Navajo Nation and Zuni Pueblo to create the Sowing Seeds Project, a digital workshop that empowers tribal communities to create instructional content infused with values, culture, and knowledge from their own knowledge system. This work will continue to expand and is included in ECE CD’s fiscal year 23 budget request. In collaboration with the Pueblo of Tuque, ECE CD entered into an Intergovernmental Agreement to fund a culturally and linguistically-relevant pre-K program and awarded over $700,000 to nearly 500 teachers and support professionals working within tribal communities around the state.
This year, we will invest $1.4 million to continue building the partnership between ECE CD and the 23 sovereign nations and support the expansion of culturally and linguistically relevant early childhood programs in all Tribal communities, like home visiting, Family Infant and Toddler (FIT) early intervention and pre-K. This includes the addition of a staff position at the department to help build the capacity of tribal communities to secure grant funding.
Improving educational outcomes for Native American students continues to be a priority, and increasing funding for initiatives under the Indian Education Act from $5.25 million to $20 million will go a long way toward ensuring that Tribal education departments and schools, Native language programs and Native American Educator Pathways receive sustained support. The Public Education Department is working with other state education agencies and higher education partners to build a teacher pipeline for Indigenous language instructors statewide and is recommending $1.25 million this year to ensure that teachers with Pre-K through 12 Native American Language and Culture certifications are paid the same as other licensed teachers with the same level of experience.
The Higher Education Department continues its work with tribal colleges and policymakers to improve college enrollment and graduation rates of Native American students. Over $4.4 million in state funds were awarded to Native American students enrolled at public and tribal colleges in New Mexico last year, and we are working to establish a comprehensive free college package this year so that more students can pursue degrees and certificates tuition-free. We are also investing over $2.4 million this year into initiatives at tribal and public higher education institutions that support Native American students, faculty, and communities, and we are recommending $11.1 million to construct new instructional facilities at those institutions.
We have accomplished much together, but our work is not finished. By continuing along this path of partnership, we will bring forward a truly representative education system. This administration is doing that work, and we will not stop until every student and community succeeds.
Elizabeth Groginsky is the Cabinet secretary for Early Childhood Education & Care. Kurt Steinhaus is New Mexico’s Public Education secretary. Stephanie Rodriguez is New Mexico’s secretary for Higher Education.
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