[Senate Hearing 117-250]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




                                                        S. Hrg. 117-250
 
    TRANSFORMATIVE AND INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES FOR BETTER EDUCATIONAL 
                  OUTCOMES FOR ALASKA NATIVE STUDENTS

=======================================================================

                             FIELD HEARING

                               before the

                      COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                           FEBRUARY 24, 2022

                               __________

         Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs
         
         
         
         
         
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]     





             U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
47-473 PDF        WASHINGTON : 2022 





                      COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS

                     BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii, Chairman
                 LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Vice Chairman
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington           JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota
JON TESTER, Montana                  JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada       STEVE DAINES, Montana
TINA SMITH, Minnesota                MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            JERRY MORAN, Kansas
       Jennifer Romero, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
        Lucy Murfitt, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
        
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Field hearing held on February 24, 2022..........................     1
Statement of Senator Murkowski...................................     1

                               Witnesses

Johnson, Michael, Commissioner, Alaska Department of Education 
  and Early Learning.............................................    19
    Prepared statement...........................................    20
Kitka, Julie, President, Alaska Federation of Natives............     6
    Prepared statement...........................................     9
Kowalski, Sandy Salaktuna, Vice President, Shareholder Relations, 
  Nana Regional Corporation......................................    14
    Prepared statement...........................................    17
Leggett, Hon. Aaron, President, Native Village of Eklutna........     3
Naneng, William, General Manger, Sea Lion Corporation............    22
    Prepared statement...........................................    25

                                Appendix

Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC), prepared statement.............    44
Lemen Jr., Morrie, Executive Director, Inupiat Community of the 
  Arctic Slope, prepared statement...............................    47
U.S. Department of Education, prepared statement.................    43


                     TRANSFORMATIVE AND INNOVATIVE                     

                   STRATEGIES FOR BETTER EDUCATIONAL


                  OUTCOMES FOR ALASKA NATIVE STUDENTS
                              ----------                              


                      THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022


                                       U.S. Senate,
                               Committee on Indian Affairs,
                                                     Anchorage, AK.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:00 p.m. AKST in 
the CH2MHill Board Room, Alaska Pacific University, the 
Honorable Lisa Murkowski, Vice Chairman of the Committee, 
presiding. *
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    * Due to poor audio reception; there are several indiscernible text 
throughout this hearing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

           OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA

    Senator Murkowski. Wherever you are, thank you for the 
opportunity to be here together.
    [Phrase in Native tongue], hoping that I am giving justice 
to the pronunciation, in Dena'ina, that means ``you came to 
us.'' So I call this hearing to order.
    As we begin, we recognize the eyes of Alaska are not 
entirely upon us in this room today. They are on Ukraine and 
the war that Vladimir Putin has decided to wage on innocent 
people.
    I am a few minutes late here, and I apologize for my tardy 
arrival. I have been on a call with our Secretary of Defense, 
our Secretary of State. As members of the Senate, we are 
provided a little bit more detail about the situation and the 
latest developments. I wish that I could share that news was 
good, and it is not.
    The events of the past day were not unexpected, but that 
does not make them any less devastating. We pray for the good 
people of Ukraine; we will support them and our NATO allies. We 
must make those who are perpetrating these horrific acts of 
war, Vladimir Putin, his cronies and the entities that support 
them, we must make them pay through uncompromising sanctions 
and penalties.
    As we are watching events on the ground in Ukraine, we are 
more thankful than ever for the blessings of our democracy and 
all that it affords us, including the ability to hold 
Congressional hearings on topics of our choosing at the time of 
our choosing and the place of our choosing, with the ability to 
speak freely without the threat of harm as we seek to shape the 
decisions of our constitutional government.
    So, to turn to our hearing, greetings to our witnesses, our 
staff that are in attendance, everyone who is participating 
online. I am Aanshawatk'i, which means in Tlingit, lady of the 
land. I am honored to be an adopted member of the Deisheetan 
clan.
    As your senior Senator, as Alaska's senior Senator, I serve 
as the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. 
This is the only Committee in Congress that exists specifically 
to address the unique problems faced by American Indian and 
Alaska Native and Native peoples.
    It is through this position that I work to ensure Alaska 
Native voices are heard and reflected in the decisions being 
made across the Federal level. I am proud of the work that 
comes out of our Committee and what we have done thus far in 
this Congress.
    We have been talking a lot about the infrastructure bill 
that was just passed into law. This is going to bring sustained 
benefits to our Native communities, whether it is water and 
sanitation infrastructure, broadband, basic necessities that 
far too many of our Native villages have gone without.
    We are focusing now on the public safety crisis facing 
Native women and children in our State. We have been engaged 
and are proud to have advanced a bipartisan bill to address 
violence against women.
    The fact that we haven't reauthorized that VAWA Act since 
2013 is something that needs to be remedied. We focus not only 
on that, but the important tribal title that includes a pilot 
program for a limited number of tribes to exercise special 
domestic violence jurisdiction, concurrent jurisdiction with 
the States.
    So we are working to advance that this year. I share that 
because I think it is important for us to remember that there 
is much work that is coming out of the Congress right now that 
will help our Native peoples.
    But today we are here to talk about education, and how we 
can achieve better education outcomes for Alaska Native 
students. I want to first begin by thanking Alaska Pacific 
University for hosting the hearing.
    As many of you probably know, Peter Gordon Gould, an Alaska 
Native from Unga, and APU's founder, saw the importance of 
education for Alaska Native students. He made it his mission to 
ensure that indigenous leadership is reared, educated, and 
trained in Alaska for Alaska. So it is very fitting that we are 
here on the APU campus.
    I am, we are, pleased and honored to have Mr. Aaron Leggett 
to provide an acknowledgement regarding the indigenous lands 
here in Anchorage. He is of Dena'ina Athabascan heritage. He 
serves as the president of the Native village of Eklutna.
    He is also a senior curator of the Alaska History and 
Indigenous Cultures at the Rasmuson Center, Anchorage Museum. 
Many accomplishments to Mr. Leggett's account, and we certainly 
appreciate him and we are very thankful, sir, for your 
determination to preserve, perpetuate and elevate the Dena'ina 
language and culture for future generations.
    I turn to you, Mr. Leggett. Please proceed.

 STATEMENT OF HON. AARON LEGGETT, PRESIDENT, NATIVE VILLAGE OF 
                            EKLUTNA

    Mr. Leggett. Thank you, Senator.
    [Phrase in Native tongue] Aaron Leggett [speaking in Native 
tongue].
    Hello, everybody. Again, my name is Aaron Leggett. I am 
currently president of the Native village of Eklutna, and the 
senior curator of Alaska History and Indigenous Cultures at the 
Anchorage Museum. As the president of the Native village of 
Eklutna, and the only federally recognized tribe here within 
the municipality of Anchorage, it is my honor to provide a 
welcome here on the Dena'ina homeland.
    As the Senator said, I think it is fitting that we are here 
talking about education at Alaska Pacific University. A little 
over two months ago, on this very campus, we celebrated the 
50th anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, a 
monumental piece of legislation.
    One of the things that I was struck by was, as I was 
sitting commemorating this event, my involvement goes back 
about 20 years. I am not that old, but I started when I was 
pretty young. I knew, I had an understanding of tribal 
sovereignty and Alaska Native Corporations and how they are 
economic drivers for our State. They are incredibly important.
    The one thing that was interesting was during that 
presentation, as I was sitting there, they interviewed about a 
half dozen APU students who were about the same age I was 20 
years ago, so, about 20. I was really struck by the fact that 
the things they were saying were the exact same things I said 
20 years ago.
    So it told me that a whole lot really hasn't changed. One 
of the fundamental problems, I believe, is with the lack of 
education around tribes in Alaska and the important role that 
Alaska Native Corporations play in our State economy.
    It is my hope that through this Senate Committee field 
hearing, working in partnership with Alaska Native entities, we 
can transform education in our State the same way that we have 
transformed health care that it is viewed around the world as a 
shining model. But we can only do that when we tell the history 
of Alaska from all perspectives and we have a true and complete 
understanding of what it means for the State to have Alaska 
Native Corporations and 220 something federally recognized 
tribes.
    I want to thank everybody who is here today. I am really 
looking forward to seeing the outcome from this. This is really 
important to me, not only to the Native Village of Eklutna, but 
also to my role at the Anchorage Museum. We are committed to 
telling the story of Alaska.
    I am honored to be here. [Phrase in Native tongue]. Thank 
you to all who came here today.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Leggett.
    Let's proceed with the hearing. I am so pleased that we are 
able to be here in Alaska for this field hearing in person. 
Field hearings are an opportunity to bring the Senate and the 
Committee to you, the Alaska Native communities that we 
represent.
    This is the first field hearing we have had following the 
pandemic. Before the pandemic hit us all, I know education 
certainly was front of mind to many of us. What we have all 
gone through over these past couple of years has made it even 
more of an imperative.
    Many States are trying new strategies and ideas, employing 
tools in innovative ways to enhance education opportunities and 
outcomes for Native students. We are seeing that first-hand 
here in Alaska, too. One of those ideas I want to examine at 
this hearing is State-tribal collaboration on education 
compacts.
    It is important to remind ourselves that this idea of 
compacting is not entirely new. In 2013, Washington State set 
up the first state-tribal education compacting program in the 
Country. To date, there are seven State compacted schools in 
operation with tribes in Washington State. Each of these 
schools previously were administered and managed by public K-12 
schools, run solely by local school districts with oversight by 
the State.
    So this idea of compacting education programs and services 
comes after decades of experience by tribes and tribal 
organizations utilizing the Indian Self-Determination and 
Education Assistance Act authorities for the betterment of 
their peoples. So ISDEA has proven successful when tribes 
assume control of Federal programs and services that uphold 
Federal trust responsibility. Mr. Leggett has spoken exactly to 
that.
    For example, here in Alaska, the Indian Health Service 
contracts or compacts 99 percent of its programs are under 
ISDEA. The Alaska Tribal Health Compact is one of the most 
successful tribal compacts in the Nation. It served as a model 
for resolving issues arising out of tribal self-governance 
compacts.
    On the State level, we also have the Alaska Tribal Welfare 
Compact. It serves as another model. It is these types of 
agreements between tribes and the Federal or State government 
that allow decisions to be made at the local level, which 
reduces bureaucracy, helps tailor programs and services to 
better assist our communities.
    Building on self-determination and self-governance 
policies, Alaska has an opportunity to improve the educational 
outcomes of Native students. I am looking forward to hearing 
from the Alaska Department of Education Early Development 
Commissioner, Dr. Michael Johnson. We are pleased that you are 
with us here this afternoon.
    Julie Kitka, President of the Alaska Federation of Natives, 
I am looking forward to this discussion and understanding more 
about the current efforts to use State-tribal compacting to 
address educational barriers that exist for Alaska Natives and 
American Indians.
    I am also looking forward to hearing about other 
innovations, such as tribal charter schools. Mr. William 
Naneng, from Sea Lion Corporation, is going to be participating 
virtually to tell us about the tribal charter school in Hooper 
Bay that he helped start.
    We will also hear from long-time educator, Sandra Salaktuna 
Kowalski of NANA, about her experiences in a variety of venues 
and how that has worked and what barriers still exist to 
helping Alaska Native students succeed.
    I think we know statistics about education outcomes, and 
many of them are not so good. The dropout rates for Alaska 
Natives and American Indians are considerably higher than other 
ethnicities and races in Alaska. For the 2020-2021 school year, 
Alaska Natives and American Indians had the highest dropout 
rates in the State, 4.6 percent compared to 3.1 percent 
statewide. These rates are consistently higher overall for 
Alaska Natives compared to non-Native students.
    Ayyu Qassataq of First Alaskans Institute shared in a 
recent dialogue hosted by UAA said, if a plant is failing, you 
don't ask why it isn't good enough. You check its soil. Is it 
getting enough water? Is it getting enough sun? You investigate 
its environment.
    It was these disparities that led the State and tribal 
organizations like AFN and First Alaskans Institute to take 
actions to try and find solutions. We have seen home-grown 
solutions that are working. We see positive outcomes from the 
SeaAlaska Heritage Institute and their award-winning Baby Raven 
Reads program.
    Here in Anchorage, we can look to the Cook Inlet Tribal 
Council with their Super Fab Lab. I have had an opportunity to 
visit and I know that many of my staff were able to tour 
yesterday.
    The Indian Affairs Committee has also held hearings on 
restoring and perpetuating Native languages and cultures. 
Native languages are more than just words. They are a vital 
part of indigenous cultures, identities, and an important tool 
to understand indigenous histories.
    Language is integral to the continuity of culture for 
future generations. Native language immersion is becoming an 
effective tool in many States. We are seeing that certainly 
here in Alaska. Research demonstrates that when Native youth 
learn in culturally relevant classrooms, with culturally 
relevant place-based curriculum, they succeed.
    I was in Juneau these past couple days and had an 
opportunity to go over to the program there at Harbor View, 
with the Tlingit language program and listen to the kids as 
they shared with me their Tik Tok videos that they are 
learning, not just to say the words, but they are learning how 
to share with one another.
    These are some of the reasons why I have worked so hard, 
and I think it is so important that we continue the focus on 
Native language revitalization programs. So we will continue to 
work to advance that.
    Dr. Rosita Worl of the SeaAlaska Heritage Institute stated 
in her written testimony that we had before the Committee, she 
said, ``Quality and equitable education for all students and 
the integration of Native arts, culture, history, language and 
culture in schools, are critical to the survival of Alaskan 
cultures, to the attainment of education success of Native 
students, and to the well-being of students, tribes and 
communities. We also believe that cultural diversity 
contributes to the richness of our State and our Nation.''
    I include that statement because I absolutely concur with 
Dr. Worl. I think it is very appropriate in terms of why we are 
here today.
    With that rather lengthy, I was going to say it was an 
introduction, but I am now turning to the introductions. Again, 
I want to thank you all for being here, and committing to work 
to ensure that our Native students receive quality and 
equitable education.
    So we will begin our testimony by coming around the table 
here. We will begin with Julie Kitka. I have introduced her as 
President of the Alaska Federation of Natives. Sandra Salaktuna 
Kowalski is the Vice President of Shareholder Relations for the 
NANA Regional Corporation. She is the second vice chair of the 
Alaska State Board of Education.
    Dr. Michael Johnson is the Commissioner of the Alaska 
Department of Education and Early development. And Mr. Willian 
Naneng is the General Manager of Sea Lion Corporation.
    I don't really feel this is fair to tell you that you only 
have five minutes to provide your summary and your testimony, 
because I have taken so much time already. But I do think we 
want to have an opportunity to have discussion and dialogue. 
Know that your full written statement is incorporated as part 
of the official hearing record. So if you don't get to all of 
it, it will be certainly incorporated as part of that official 
record.
    With that, we will proceed to Julie Kitka. Thank you, not 
only thank you for being here, Julie, but thank you for your 
continued focus on prioritizing education and working to 
address what we all know to be the real disparities when it 
comes to Alaska Native students.
    Thank you.

   STATEMENT OF JULIE KITKA, PRESIDENT, ALASKA FEDERATION OF 
                            NATIVES

    Ms. Kitka. Thank you, Senator. It is an honor to testify 
today. [indiscernible] Chairman Schatz [indiscernible] General 
Counsel and Executive Vice President for [indiscernible] and 
then [indiscernible] Vice President. So I recognize that there 
are many questions that they struggle to answer particularly 
about compacting [indiscernible] that facilitates the 
negotiation of State compact negotiations with tribes and 
social service and child welfare. It is a pretty 
[indiscernible].
    First of all, I wanted to just ask that the testimony and 
the attachments that are attached to it be included for the 
record.
    Senator Murkowski. It will all be included.
    Ms. Kitka. I draw your attention to the piece on 
Transformational Education Post-Pandemic: A Path Forward. We 
have been working with the State legislature [indiscernible] 
education compacting, primarily working with the foundation 
[indiscernible] as it attempts to do that. The [indiscernible] 
foundation [indiscernible] State [indiscernible], taking into 
account the special trust relationship that we have with the 
Federal Government, taking into account the regulations on the 
Federal side, taking into account the State of Alaska's 
constitution, laws and regulations.
    We are delighted to tell you that this is an absolutely 
wonderful partnership between our community and the State of 
Alaska. I can report that the Governor of Alaska supports this, 
Mr. Johnson supports this, the State Board of Education 
supports this legislation, and the legislature on the Senate 
side and House side. Legislative hearings have been held on the 
State's Senate side, and new legislation has been introduced on 
the House side. I am struck by this bipartisan support and this 
idea of the demonstration.
    So I am thrilled at this progress because we think at this 
point in time, as we are all coming out of this pandemic, as we 
are dealing with the situation and all its confusion 
[indiscernible] resources into our State. Everything 
[indiscernible] expansion [indiscernible] broadens 
[indiscernible] in education. We can collaborate with 
[indiscernible] State [indiscernible] and facilitate that 
[indiscernible]. So this is a great example [indiscernible].
    I wanted to shout out to the chairman of the State Senate 
Education Committee [indiscernible] president [indiscernible] 
Senator Stevens out of Kodiak still a couple of years ago has 
been working with us and updating it, trying to get a more 
simplified approach in the legislature [indiscernible] about 
[indiscernible] education to laser focus on how we can have 
transformational education is in compact [indiscernible].
    On just transformative education [indiscernible] accelerate 
it [indiscernible] and look at the rate of change that we are 
building in our minds, [indiscernible] computers to 
[indiscernible], to [indiscernible], to artificial 
intelligence, great changes happen so quickly. In education we 
cannot just rely on [indiscernible] of the past. The very 
strong way the transformational education that we are seeking 
is not teaching about our culture, teaching about our language, 
it is teaching through our language.
    That is what is transformational about compacting. The 
emphasis, innovation, the emphasis on culture-based education 
which supports the needs of the child, the context in which the 
child fits in, content that they are being taught, but 
dynamically interrelated into the whole school system. And the 
[indiscernible] value of parents, their whole education, but 
just not satisfied that schools have [indiscernible] and our 
comments are not negative to anybody. It is just the rate of 
change is happening so fast that we need to accelerate to 
overcome the barriers for our children for learning, for them 
to achieve their full potential.
    We think that culturally based education and language is 
important for the family and the community. Cultural context, 
the cultural content that the school [indiscernible] rigorous 
assessment [indiscernible] we work with the [indiscernible] 
demonstration [indiscernible] of asking people to take an 
interest.
    Also we know that essential emotional development of 
children is critically important to their self [indiscernible], 
their cultural identity, their sense of belonging and sense of 
connectedness. That all leads to greater education outcomes, 
student engagement, student achievement, and student behavior 
in schools.
    We also believe that we need to, besides authorize the 
demonstration project on compacting, target more resources for 
teacher preparation and development. Our teachers are so 
important to us and their development should be viewed as an 
investment in our children, not as a requirement or something 
else.
    We also view that we need to ensure that the broadband is 
expanded to our communities and seamlessly integrated into the 
school experience, including in our compact.
    So our testimony today and the comments we put in is not 
only for support for the demonstration of compacting, but it is 
to ask for additional support for all the innovations going on 
right now. Compacting is not going to be for every community 
and every tribe. But let's go test it out, let's do several 
demonstration projects, let's prove the value and the worth. We 
have seen during this pandemic how strong our tribal health 
system has been, how durable and innovative it is. We want the 
same thing in our educational system.
    I want to also note for the record that tribal compacting 
is not just limited to the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the 
Indian Health Service. The United States Government, the 
Congress, has authorized and engages in compacts with the 
island nations through the Compact of Free Association. We use 
national security, national interests and policy in our 
arrangement with those island nations. The compacting is a very 
effective mechanism.
    Also a number of years ago we moved some of the foreign aid 
out of Foreign Aid into the Millennium Challenge Corporation, 
in which those are five-year compacts that are for mostly low 
and middle income countries. They fund things such as railroads 
in Mongolia, or transportation systems.
    What is so unique about the compact is you are able to set 
up the goals at the beginning, you set up the accountability, 
you pledge the resources for doing it and let people accomplish 
what they are doing.
    So this asking for the compacting on education is not new. 
U.S. Federal policy has already shown it is for Native policy, 
for national interest policy, as well as our programs that go 
around the world to all these countries. It has really proved 
out.
    Mongolia, for example, had their first five-year compact. 
They did so well they had it renewed for another five-year 
compact. We are seeing a lot of progress on that. So we view 
that with a lot of encouragement that this demonstration will 
prove the success and hold us accountable to make sure it is.
    Again, this is about systemic change. It is not about a 
band-aid. It is about how do you drive systemic change, how do 
you do it through our culture, how do you engage the Native 
people in the education of their own children. But we do not 
expect or want any lesser education, we want more, that is what 
we are about.
    Again, I probably could go on about other things, but it is 
in the written testimony. We wholeheartedly support it, we 
wholeheartedly support efforts to increase innovation, 
incentivize.
    I do have one request I would ask you to do, is that rider 
that was put in in 1994 prohibiting resources coming into 
Alaskan schools, we ask that that rider be withdrawn. That has 
the potential to continue a period of harming our schools and 
our educational system.
    I want to give a little background on why we are making 
that request. When that rider was put in, and Senator Stevens 
put that in there, it was at the tail-end of the BIA schools 
and the transfer of those BIA schools to the State. It was also 
at the time in which the Federal Government was transferring 
the railroad to the State, and transferring a lot of things.
    What was at the heart of what was going on at that time was 
the resources coming into the State from Prudhoe Bay. It was 
the buildup of the permanent fund. And it was the recognition 
that the State of Alaska could not keep doing all these things 
on the Federal level when you had such incredible wealth being 
created in the State in the permanent fund. It wasn't that the 
Federal role in education should be diminished or eliminated. 
We certainly think that that rider should disappear.
    Do we want to turn education upside down on the national 
level? No. We do not. So we want that cautiously done and 
carefully done. But we don't want that rider anymore. We want 
the opportunity to engage with the Department of Interior and 
the Department of Education for improving education.
    We have sent a letter to the Solicitor of Interior, Bob 
Anderson, detailing a lot of this information to them, asking 
for a legal opinion on use of the compacting authority within 
the Department of Interior. They currently have broad 
compacting authority which they push out to the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs. We want to be able to use that compacting 
authority in this as well as whether or not they are able to 
use the authority to transfer some funding from other agencies, 
such as the Department of Education.
    The reason why we asked for that, and we don't have the 
answer yet on that, is we didn't want to wait for you and the 
Committee to get us the official language that says the 
Department of Education can compact directly, or the Department 
of Justice can compact. At this point, just so we can speed it 
up and move faster, we want the ability to use Interior's 
compact authority.
    We think it would be beneficial on multiple fronts in the 
Department, especially with the load of resources on 
infrastructure and everything, if other agencies and 
departments are able to run, target money through those funds 
to get them out to where they need to be.
    But on this education one in particular, we want to not 
only look at what Interior has that would pertain, but more 
importantly, the Department of Education and their efforts for 
innovation.
    Again, we are not seeking to overturn everything and cause 
chaos. But we do want that provision removed, and for us to 
move down a path to have full implementation of the Federal 
trust responsibility. It is something that when we took on this 
project working with the Commissioner, that was one of our 
fundamental things we agreed on, is that we were going to do 
everything we could to strengthen that Federal trust 
responsibility. We weren't going to do anything to weaken it.
    With that, Madam Chairman, I will conclude my testimony.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Kitka follows:]

  Prepared Statement of Julie Kitka, President, Alaska Federation of 
                                Natives
I. Introduction
    Vice Chair Murkowski and Members of the Committee:
    Good afternoon. My name is Julie Kitka, and I serve as the 
President of the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN). AFN is the largest 
statewide Alaska Native membership organization in Alaska. Our 
membership includes over 130,000 Alaska Natives and their institutions 
set up to serve our people. AFN's membership includes federally 
recognized tribes, regional tribal consortiums, regional non-profit 
organizations, and Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) villages 
and regional corporations representing every corner of the state.
    Thank you for convening this hearing today. Senator Murkowski, we 
commend you for your long-standing and continued interest in 
legislation and legislative oversight of programs that are designed to 
meet the distinct social, cultural, and economic needs of Alaska Native 
communities and individuals. You have supported new initiatives in this 
area and sought ideas for improvements in existing programs, and we 
thank you for your support and leadership.
    AFN requested this hearing today to urge the Committee to take 
action to help us to strengthen the federal trust responsibility in 
education for Alaska Natives, acknowledge the sometimes contradictory 
actions of the federal government over the years, and direct the 
Departments of Interior and Education to support the growing 
partnership with the State of Alaska in evaluating and demonstrating 
the potential of tribal compact schools as well as scale up other 
innovative efforts which are going on right now all over our state.
    I want to report that we have been working closely with the Alaska 
Commissioner of Education, Dr. Michael Johnson, on a new type of public 
school in Alaska--a tribally compacted school. AFN has been working on 
the legal foundation of such a project, evaluating the relevant laws, 
regulations, and policies at both the federal and state levels. AFN 
desires to pilot a range of compact schools with the full weight of the 
federal trust responsibility for education, as well as the full weight 
of the State of Alaska constitutional mandate to provide education.
    The worldwide pandemic of the past two years has created an 
unprecedented disruption in the delivery of education to Alaska's 
students and has demonstrated a far greater demand for innovation in 
education methods, service delivery, and awareness of community needs. 
From the COVID-19 pandemic, we learned that we need to make sure the 
institutions around us have flexibility to adapt and meet the true 
needs of the people. Within the Alaska Native community there is a 
growing awareness that teaching about our culture or language is not 
enough. Our parents are our children's first teachers. They need 
support. Critical resources need to go into relevant teacher 
preparation, professional development, curriculum development as well 
as leadership training. We need to scale up the resources available and 
broaden the opportunities. We need critical resources to evaluate 
financial infrastructure, systems patterns and governance patterns that 
work for us. In our efforts we are putting our children first. Our 
parents are the frontline. Our children and their future, demands that 
the Alaska Native people take greater ownership of the system of 
education and ensure not only language and culture are at the heart of 
the educational experience, but that our social and economic well-being 
and aspirations for our future. We are ready to take on more 
responsibility and accountability. We want to have a greater role in 
decisionmaking and ensure our children can be all they want to be. In 
short, we want to expand the imagination of our people and create a 
path where we can put all our best efforts to create a better 
educational system.
    This is not wishful thinking. It is critical if we are going to 
survive the rapid change which destabilizes our traditional communities 
and devalues our people. This change has been accelerating. Some have 
put the rate of rapid change to be 1000X the change that occurred in 
our parents' generation. And it continues to accelerate all around us 
and with leaps in technology.
    The State Board of Education and the Alaska Department of Education 
and Early Development have identified compacting as the mechanism that 
will allow for the transformation of Alaska Native education, and the 
Alaska State legislature is currently considering legislation that 
would authorize a demonstration project for compacting of education 
services for Alaska Native students. Through tribal compacting of 
education, we will improve outcomes for students, schools, and 
communities.
    Compacting has long been one of the federal government's most 
effective tools for the promotion of innovative and cost-effective 
tribal programs, such as those under the Indian Health Service and 
Bureau of Indian Affairs. We have great and long-lasting experience in 
compacting in these areas.
    We believe there is room in Alaska's educational system to create a 
transformational educational system. We have the commitment and drive 
to do our best to accomplish something better for our children.

    The following written testimony attachments have been retained in 
the Committee files:

  Attachment A: Transformational Education Post Pandemic: A 
        Path Forward, dated December 2, 2021.

  Attachment B: AFN White Paper: The Origins, Meaning and 
        Future of Indian Self-Determination, dated December 2021.

  Attachment C: A link to three special webinars which were 
        held to support this effort by First Alaskans Institute on 
        transformative education and a discussion on what is possible 
        in Alaska as we move to tribal compacting over education. 
        Professor Graham Smith and Professor Linda Tuiwai Smith (Maori) 
        discussed lessons learned in their 40 years of experience in 
        New Zealand. (Webinar dates: February 11, 15, and 18th 2022. A 
        video link and written transcript are available.)

II. The Need for a New Approach
    The indigenous population in Alaska is large and diverse. There are 
229 federally recognized Indian tribes and at least twenty distinct 
indigenous languages, some of which are now spoken by only a few 
people. \1\ Over the years, you have heard a lot about the disastrous 
history of education of Native children in this State--including 
government policy to eliminate our traditional cultures, traditions, 
and language and assimilate our children to be something they are not. 
This has had tragic impacts on generations of Alaska Native people. I 
am not going to dwell on that history, except to note its role in 
creating the current educational crisis for Native students in our 
state, where only about 68 percent of Native students in Alaska 
graduate from high school--compared to 80 percent percent of all 
students--and more than 5 percent drop out--compared to 3 percent of 
non-Native students. \2\ It is also of note that, despite the fact that 
22 percent of students in our state are Alaska Native, only 5 percent 
of our teachers are Alaska Native or American Indian--a number that has 
not changed for decades. \3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Diane Hirshberg, Ph.D., Educational Challenges in Alaska, 
University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic 
Research, February 2022, at 5.
    \2\ Id. at 14.
    \3\ Id. at 11.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Alaska's vast size (land mass \1/5\ the size of the entire United 
States) and the isolated nature of most of its Native villages also 
present special challenges to traditional approaches to education. \4\ 
More than 300 communities in Alaska, the vast majority of which are 
predominantly indigenous, are accessible only by plane or boat. \5\ The 
pandemic only exacerbated the challenges to providing quality education 
to Alaska's Native students, who struggled to adapt to remote learning 
due to the lack of reliable Internet access in Alaska's rural areas. 
The true impacts of the pandemic on Native education are yet to be 
determined, as we are still in the pandemic.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ Id. at 22.
    \5\ Id. at 4.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    These historical, geographic, and practical complexities--and just 
common sense--call for creative and flexible solutions that expand 
access to and leverage modern technology and innovations. We have those 
solutions at hand now if we exercise the right authorities and access 
the tremendous value in teaching through culture.
    The Alaska State Board of Education and the Alaska Department of 
Education and Early Development recognized this need for innovation 
even before the pandemic, and, in 2016, changed the Department's 
mission and vision statements to include five strategic priorities 
designed to ensure an excellent public education for all of Alaska's 
students. One of those priorities was to ``inspire tribal and community 
ownership of educational excellence.'' The recommendation based on that 
priority, which the State Board later adopted, was to ``create the 
option for self-governance compacting for the delivery of education 
between the State of Alaska and Tribes or tribally-empowered Alaska 
Native organizations.'' As part of this effort, AFN has partnered with 
the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development to advance a 
demonstration project that would establish the first tribal compact 
schools in the state.
    There has been important progress made in the education of Native 
students in Alaskan schools that have adopted the teaching 
recommendations of Alaska Native leaders, tribes, and tribal 
organizations, educators, and academic experts. For example, Native 
language education is now part of the curriculum, and many schools have 
found ways to present other aspects of Native culture to students. But 
it is clear that just teaching Native students about their culture in a 
classroom is not enough to change educational outcomes. To influence 
those outcomes and improve our children's future, we need our schools 
to implement pedagogies based on and provided through Alaska Native 
cultural perspectives.
    Schools help shape the way students think about the world and 
prepare them to live in that world. Academic research has established 
the benefits of Alaska Native children remaining linguistically and 
culturally connected to their tribes and communities. It is time to go 
beyond theory and implement change that will transform the education of 
Alaska Native students and improve their futures.
    AFN has been working to support the State Board of Education's 
priority of identifying a legal and practical pathway for a state-
tribal compact in which Alaska Natives could administer K-12 public 
education with support from the local school board and community. 
Legislation currently pending before the State legislature would 
authorize the Commissioner of Education to test innovative ideas 
through real-world experience, and then use that experience to evolve 
programs to make them more effective. Aligning vision, goals, and 
resources through demonstration projects to prove the value is an 
important first step.
III. Benefits of Tribal Compacting of Education
    Tribal compacting of education offers significant benefits to all 
parties. A compact is a negotiated agreement between tribes and a state 
and/or the federal government that sets forth the terms and conditions 
of the relationship. Unlike contracts, compacts may set political 
policies for the state and tribes ``and therefore have inherent value 
even beyond their stated goals,'' \6\ and practices under the compact 
may be changed without requiring new approvals for the change. 
Compacting for the delivery of education means that Alaska tribes, or 
tribally empowered Alaska Native organizations, will be able to partner 
with the State to assume the responsibility (and receive the associated 
funding) to carry out educational programs, functions, services, and 
activities the State otherwise would be obligated to provide.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ Intergovernmental Compacts in Native American Law: Models for 
Expanded Usage, 112 Harv. L. Rev. 922, 924 (1999).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Because only one other state--Washington--has implemented a program 
for the tribal compacting of education services, and because the 
circumstances in Alaska differ in several important ways from 
Washington, including the logistical challenges Alaska faces described 
above and a lack of pre-existing BIA schools, the Department of 
Education is committed to starting this endeavor into tribal compacting 
of education with a demonstration project. Those of us who have studied 
the needs here believe a test project will put Alaska in the best 
position to ensure that, when a permanent program is eventually 
implemented, it will best meet the needs of Alaska's Native students.
    The present proposal before the Alaska legislature would authorize 
a demonstration project for tribal compacting that would formally 
recognize the tribal entity's authority to oversee certain functions of 
K-12 public schools. The current proposal is for a five-year 
demonstration period. Participation in the program would be voluntary 
and structured to honor tribal sovereignty through government-to-
government negotiations and agreements.
    The proposed demonstration project would improve education for 
Native students in Alaska by:

  Providing local control of schools in tribal communities

  Allowing for improved recruitment and training of Native 
        educators

  Allowing for K-12 teaching through cultural methods

  Encouraging Native parents and community leaders to become 
        and stay involved with the education of Native children

  Providing for Native language, culture, and vocational 
        education

  Providing a reporting mechanism for ongoing review and 
        improvement of the compacting program

    The demonstration project would offer tribes and Native communities 
an opportunity to have a direct role in providing their children an 
education grounded in and driven by their culture, language, 
traditions, and values on a demonstration basis with the potential to 
grow into broader use of state-tribal education compacting. Requiring 
regular reporting on the program's implementation will also provide 
valuable information to guide Native education planning in Alaska and 
help ensure future success.
    We have received great, thoughtful leadership from the Commissioner 
of Education, and we are hopeful the legislation will pass in this 
session.
IV. The Federal Role
    We want Alaska's demonstration project for tribal compact schools 
to be a new hybrid effort utilizing state and federal funding sources. 
The exercise of tribal control over Native education arises from a 
foundation of federal laws that have supported education for Native 
American students based on the federal government's trust 
responsibility. Considerable legal authority already exists for the 
federal funding and operation of education programs for the benefit of 
Alaska Natives. As just one example, the Johnson-O'Malley Act 
authorizes the Secretary of the Interior, through the Bureau of Indian 
Education, to enter contracts with tribes, tribal organizations, 
states, schools, and private non-sectarian organizations to address the 
needs of Native students. In addition, the Indian Self-Determination, 
and Education Assistance Act \7\ authorizes self-governance compacts, 
which are used primarily for tribes to assume operation of the Indian 
Health Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs programs. \8\ ISDEAA also 
authorizes tribal compacting of programs from other bureaus of the 
Department of the Interior. \9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ P.L. 93-638, as amended.
    \8\ See supra n.1.
    \9\ The Department of the Interior publishes a list annually of all 
non-BIA programs, services, functions, and activities that are eligible 
for inclusion in self-governance agreements. There are required 
programmatic targets. Currently nearly the entire Indian Health Service 
and Bureau of Indian Affairs is compacted--with Alaska Native tribes, 
consortiums or statewide compacts running for example the statewide 
hospital, regional hospitals, subregional and village health clinics.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    AFN has asked the U.S. Department of the Interior for a legal 
opinion as to whether it may enter compacts on behalf of other federal 
departments, such as the United States Department of Education. If the 
Department of the Interior has that authority, it may act as a conduit 
for federal Department of Education funds supporting Alaska's tribal 
compacting demonstration program on a temporary basis until direct 
Congressional authority is obtained. AFN's initial legal analysis 
suggests such authority exists under the Johnson-O'Malley Act and its 
implementing regulations, the JOM Modernization Act of 2018, and the 
clear compacting authority of ISDEAA.
    One legislative fix that AFN urges you to immediately pursue is the 
repeal of a provision included in the 1994 appropriations legislation 
for the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies that prohibited 
the use of funding other than through the Johnson-O'Malley Act to 
support the operation of elementary and secondary schools in Alaska. 
This provision was included at the request of Assistant Secretary of 
Indian Affairs Dr. Eddie Brown because a few Alaska villages had 
applied for the BIA to take over education services and the BIA did not 
have sufficient funds to grant those requests. Dr. Brown asked for 
language added to the appropriations bill that would prohibit the 
expenditure of BIA funds to support the operation of elementary and 
secondary schools in Alaska, and that language was included. Annual 
appropriations legislation for DOI still regularly includes an 
administrative provision prohibiting BIA expenditures to support the 
operation of elementary and secondary schools in Alaska, except through 
the Johnson-O'Malley program. \10\ AFN believes this provision violates 
the federal government's trust responsibility to Alaska tribes as 
currently applied to education programs now and looking forward and 
asks this Committee to repeal that provision.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\ See, e.g., P.L. 110-161 (121 Stat. 2113).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In a great many ways, our effort to develop a framework for 
compacting lines up with the interests of the Senate Committee on 
Indian Affairs. The most recent amendments to the Johnson O'Malley 
program, a cornerstone educational program for the education of Native 
Americans, arose in the Committee in 2017, and were enacted into law in 
2018. There could well be a role for the utilization of the JOM program 
in the compacting of the schools, and curriculum that we are working 
on. More significantly, the oversight jurisdiction of the Committee 
could be exercised to review the need for upgrading and improving the 
delivery of education to Alaska Native students, which lags where it 
should be. We at AFN believe very strongly that there is a unique and 
strong role for the federal government to support efforts such as those 
we want to undertake. It is in fact the federal trust responsibility 
that underpins all the federal programs, and we cherish this 
relationship.
    Importantly, tribal education compacts in Alaska will be negotiated 
and created on a voluntary basis in a manner that does not diminish the 
Alaska Natives' right to self-determination or the federal government's 
trust responsibility toward Alaska Natives.
V. Conclusion
    This is a forward-looking effort, built on the experiences of our 
history. We cannot rewrite the difficult history of Alaska Native 
education in our state, but there is precedent--setting value in the 
idea of tribal, state, and federal collaboration to promote innovative 
and meaningful ways to support our children. The lessons we learn from 
the demonstration project in Alaska might have other local, state, or 
national applications in terms of American Indian/Alaska Native 
programs or other multi-cultural programs or services. Establishing 
this demonstration project is critical to the future of Alaska Native 
children and offers hope in an area where hope has historically been 
hard to find. We are excited about the possibilities, and we welcome 
the opportunity to work with you on this issue.
    Thank you.

    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Julie. I appreciate that. You 
have answered several of the questions that I had in front of 
me.
    Sandy, welcome to the Committee, and thank you.

          STATEMENT OF SANDY SALAKTUNA KOWALSKI, VICE 
  PRESIDENT, SHAREHOLDER RELATIONS, NANA REGIONAL CORPORATION

    Ms. Salaktuna. Thank you. I am recently, being that I am 
Vice President of Shareholder Relations for the NANA Regional 
Corporation, I can tell you that I have been an education 
professional all my life until recently, moving into this new 
role. I wanted to be here today as a career educator, and let 
you know that my passion has been creating healthy and engaging 
and meaningful opportunities that contribute to the health and 
well-being of my people. I come here to share my perspective on 
growing up indigenous in an American school system and what I 
see or what I envision about being an Alaska Native student.
    I do want to share my appreciation to AFN for their work 
with the Commissioner here. I am also a State board member, and 
I want to share the State Board's appreciation for that level 
of work and commitment. I think that we can all say that is 
what has moved the wheel, and things are, there are some gears 
now. We really appreciate that.
    I also appreciate that the focus is on not diminishing any 
of the Federal trust responsibility and helping us learn more 
about the legal and regulation pieces that would support this. 
I want to offer mine and the Board's appreciation to AFN, as I 
am sure the Commissioner will as well.
    But first and foremost, I am coming to you here as a long-
time educator. I would have to say that I have been telling 
people ever since I have become a State Board member, and I 
have had an ability to move about, that I don't think that 
Alaskan classrooms are that different from classrooms in the 
lower 48 yet. I think even though we have classrooms here that 
use cultural standards to help guide lessons so that they are 
culturally relevant, it still isn't much different than the 
lower 48. The system is just built the way it is right now. We 
have curriculum, textbooks, teaching practices, even our 
extracurricular activities and our calendar year, they are 
baked in from hundreds of years of the western education 
system.
    In the decades that I have worked as an educational 
professional, I really have been, in the past few years I have 
been able to put some words to some dissonance that I have 
always experienced as an educational professional. I grew up in 
the lower 48 and in Alaska. I have also attended one of those 
tribal schools that you mentioned in Washington State. I 
attended Chief Leschi Indian School when it was a brand-
spanking new school in the basement of a church. I have also 
helped to start Nikaitchuat Tribal School in Kotzebue, Alaska. 
And I have been a working member of many efforts to improve 
outcomes for students through cultural activities and cultural 
and language revitalization efforts.
    We have to do more than change the resources we have in 
front of our students. We have to get at the gut of what I feel 
like I experienced as dissonance growing up. There is a point 
when you are an Alaska Native student or an American Indian 
student where you realize that you might not have been intended 
to be there in that moment in that classroom. You are sitting 
there in a history class and you are learning about manifest 
destiny and U.S. assimilation policies and you are accountable 
for that knowledge and you are answering test questions on that 
information that you are learning in history.
    And no one is addressing it, but it is occurring to you. 
This has got to be happening, it didn't just happen to other 
people, there is a point in your life where you are like, I am 
indigenous, I am Native American, I am Alaska Native. 
Everything here in this school system feels a little 
disconnected, or I feel a little disconnected right now.
    So the only way that I feel we can truly, for indigenous 
people, have an education system that doesn't do that to them 
is to have an education system that is not only by Alaska 
Natives but it is for Alaska Natives, which benefits all people 
in our area, and it is of Alaska Natives. We have created the 
educational system that is most meaningful for our community.
    I think I have already made the point, I am looking through 
this here, that simply tweaking resources that exist won't get 
at what I am doing. I think we can all acknowledge that when a 
publishing company realizes that they need to change something 
in a textbook used in American schools, it really doesn't get 
at the heart of what is done when you are trying to rewrite 
portions of textbooks to address American Indian and Alaska 
Native issues and expect [indiscernible] still doesn't get at 
it. It is still not of, for, and by the indigenous people in 
the communities.
    So that is a little bit about one of the reasons I have 
been driven to work in this area as a public educator. I have 
worked in the system, I was an administrator, one of those 
gung-ho principals when NCLB came out. I was astonished at what 
some of the implications would be. But gosh darn it, Alaska 
Natives were a demographic that we were finally going to hold 
schools accountable for, and that got me excited for about a 
year and a half or two, because I started realizing about some 
of the other mechanisms in it.
    So I have been a good soldier as a public educator, in our 
State system, responding to Federal regulations and other well-
intended practices that get put into place in classrooms in 
Alaska. And all the well-intended practices aren't going to 
make a deep enough difference unless we as Alaska Natives are 
creating our own educational system that our students are 
participating in.
    I have this vision that we will have a fourth-grade boy who 
is not even understanding he is in a science mode, but he is 
out checking his rabbit snare, and he is understanding the 
human impact to his environment, because he was taught by 
elders already about what is respectful practices for 
harvesting animals in that setting for that type of animal. And 
he is learning about the human impact through his elders.
    He is also able to understand the cultural practices and 
the deep connections to the land through that activity, and not 
through English, but through Inupiaq. I believe that is 
entirely possible.
    We are at a point now where there is collective energy and 
synergy, not just in the Inupiaq region where I am from, but 
through many arears of the State where we have people of all 
age. I work with and work near people of all ages through 
cultural and language revitalization work right now. That 
synergy is really ready to bust loose of the systems that are 
in place and help create the innovation and vision that is 
ready to be put in place when compacting comes around.
    As a side note, the State Board of Education right now, our 
goal is to make sure we are removing the barriers for 
regulation for State compacting, we are paying attention to the 
overarching activity around tribal compacting. But we are also 
paying attention to what school systems may need once this 
innovation is allowed to happen, is empowered to happen.
    So we are looking at teacher preparation as one of our key 
pieces to make sure, we could get all kinds of regulations in 
the way of that. But when we are thinking about an indigenous 
teacher pathway, our State board is making sure that we are 
already looking ahead to make sure we are supportive of it, we 
are not going to get in the way of it, and we are actually 
going to try to create help to support the pathways that do get 
developed for teacher pathways and tribal compacting.
    I know that Julie touched on this already, but I want to 
give you a little bit of personal experience around language 
revitalization and young children and how Inupiaq language 
revitalization really is an additive piece of their growing up 
in Alaska. English is always going to be there in Alaska. I do 
not have to worry about any of my children or grandchildren 
learning to read, write, or speak English. They are going to 
get that.
    But while they get that, if I don't also help focus on 
being Inupiaq and their connection to their family and their 
land, I think I take away something from them. My two youngest 
sons, I have four sons, my two youngest learned to read and 
write in Inupiaq first. They went to Nikaitchuat Tribal School 
in Kotzebue.
    But I could say that those two, when I look at all four of 
my sons, they learned to read first in English, they went to 
the public school, they learned to focus academically, and they 
learned to be very respectful in a public-school classroom. 
They had the grounding at Nikaitchuat Tribal School where they 
learned to read in an orthography that is pretty recent. Let's 
face it, our indigenous language orthographies are recent.
    So what that means, when you are teaching children how to 
read, is it is a really clean system for them to make sense, 
based on what we already know about the science of reading, 
sound-letter correlations, and picking up how to read words 
that might be unfamiliar to them. These were kids that went to 
Nikaitchuat who spoke English first, ended up in an Inupiaq 
immersion program at three years old, and learned to read 
Inupiaq. The skills they applied are exactly the types of 
skills I see happening in really effective reading classrooms. 
It is applied Inupiaq, and they are both strong readers for it.
    The other thing that I want to share is while my kids were 
at Nikaitchuat, I was a principal in the public school that 
Nikaitchuat kids fed into. I have to say that those students at 
Nikaitchuat, I saw them go from first, second, third, fourth, 
fifth grade, and then they would exit into a middle school 
setting.
    I got to sit there at every quarterly award ceremony at our 
school. I knew, because I was connected to Nikaitchuat, and the 
Juneau Elementary, the public school was 500 students large, 
but I always knew which ones were Nikaitchuat students, because 
of my close involvement. At those award ceremonies, there was a 
lot of academic recognition.
    But I think what was most meaningful to our elders who were 
involved with Nikaitchuat, and who understood what they really 
wanted out of Nikaitchuat, was that most of those students 
receiving awards for behavior, respectful behavior, engagement 
and hard work, helping others, those were always, 20 students 
came out of Nikaitchuat, 500-student school, I would say always 
50 percent of them were Nikaitchuat students, because they had 
had grounding toward respectful behavior toward elders, 
respectful behavior toward teachers, ways that they were 
engaged at the very beginning with their environment around 
them I think really grounded them.
    Knowing that they had that connection to their language and 
culture that their family had provided for them, I think there 
is a whole lot that goes into a child's sense of why school is 
important. When you know that parents choose this for you, 
there is so much value in what a child puts into it and what 
they do after that for the rest of their lives.
    So I really am excited about this conversation about 
innovative practices in education. I have lost track of time. 
But I did want to say that it is important for us not to forget 
as we really work toward innovative programs that we make a 
cultural foundation for our students, a language foundation for 
our students, that we also know that this addresses that 
otherness that I really believe that a lot of us who have come 
through American westernized school systems feel as we start to 
realize what a school, what an American school system does to 
an indigenous person on their homeland. You are sitting there, 
and you are indigenous, you are sitting in an Alaska Native 
classroom and you are learning about things that really, you 
start to think, was I meant to be here. Gee, I am on my own 
land.
    And I think that these innovative practices that we are 
talking about can finally erase that kind of dichotomy or 
dissonance, I don't know what other words to give it, that you 
experience being Alaska Native in a classroom where it is not 
of, for, and by your people that you are being educated in.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Kowalski follows:]
    Senator Murkowski. Thanks, I appreciate that.

         Prepared Statement of Sandy Salaktuna Kowalski, Vice 
      President, Shareholder Relations, Nana Regional Corporation
    Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you 
today. I am an educator by career, but my passion has been creating 
healthy, engaging and meaningful opportunities that contribute to the 
health and wellbeing of my people. I come here today to share with you 
my perspective on growing up Indigenous in an American school system, 
and what I envision will improve outcomes for Alaska Native students.
    First, I want to point out that classrooms in Alaska, in many 
regards, looks like classrooms in the Lower 48. The system is just 
built this way--curriculum, textbooks, teaching practices, 
extracurricular activity, and even school year calendars derive from 
hundreds of years of Western cultural foundations that are not like the 
cultural foundations in the communities these classrooms reside in.
    I have worked for decades as an educational professional, and have 
given my best run at improving outcomes while working within a Western 
system, and I have also been involved with creating a opportunities 
outside the system. Much of what has been tried in typical Alaskan 
classrooms comes from well-intended educators implementing best 
practices that work in classrooms in places like Texas. And for Texas, 
this absolutely fits. But I tell you what, I've felt a dissonance at 
times with this work. This is not only because the cultural 
underpinnings of our communities are different (I will get to that 
later), but also because from the outset, the intention of schooling in 
Alaska Native communities was to ``Americanize'' Alaska's Indigenous 
people through schooling.
    There is a point in just about every Alaska Native and American 
Indian student's journey through school when it occurs to us that we 
weren't necessarily meant to be present in the classroom. In that 
moment, one is aware that they are wholly intact, yet reading and 
answering test questions about manifest destiny and US assimilation 
policies. What's poignant for Alaska Native students is that this 
realization occurs in classrooms that sit on our lands.
    Tweaking the resources that exist doesn't get at the heart of the 
transformative education that's needed to improve outcomes for Alaska 
Native youth. Let's face it, even when a textbook publisher works to 
accurately tell the story of America's Indigenous people, it's not told 
for full benefit of the Alaskan Native and American Indian. The most 
powerful way to create educational benefit is for Alaskan Natives to 
construct our own education system.
    Even with the injurious practices that have been implemented in 
past decades, education for Alaska Native youth is ripe with 
possibility. There is a resilience that has not been extinguished. 
Throughout the decades before today, both elders and language and 
culture experts have been dutifully preparing for a time when education 
for Alaska Native students is of, for, and by Alaska Natives. In the 
case of my own home region, there are transcribed and translated 
interviews and stories collected throughout the 1970s and 1980s that 
are waiting to be relearned and introduced back into our collective 
knowledge.
    Our students are worth this re-engagement. Imagine a 4th grade boy 
is investigating habitat and human impact who is doing this while 
checking a rabbit snare. In his own Indigenous language, he is learning 
the respectful practices elders have passed on. When he harvests a 
rabbit, he butchers the rabbit, speaking with his teacher in Inupiaq, 
asking questions and responding to directions. Not only will this young 
boy learn valuable knowledge to sustain our lands and ways of 
understanding the environment and our place within it, but this boy 
also feels validated and engaged in school.
    I believe this type of experience is important. Alaska Native 
students' academic, social, and emotional outcomes need transformative 
change of this nature so that Alaska Native students can thrive. I no 
longer want students to experience their ``otherness'' from the 
classroom that sits on their own homelands. Instead, classroom 
experiences should build identity, empowerment, and connection. Alaska 
Native communities have cultural practices, rich histories, and 
important perspectives on the environment and the treatment of 
humankind, and this should be taught in school.
    Visioning about Indigenous language revitalization often comes up 
when this type of transformative change is discussed. Inherent in 
Alaska's Indigenous languages is knowledge about the land, environment 
and relationships Indigenous people have within families and with each 
other. Teaching through the language provides the fullest access to 
traditional knowledge. Through effective revitalization efforts, 
Alaskan classrooms can be a place where children learn content such as 
math, reading, science and history through their Native language. One 
example of where this is happening is in a primary grade classroom in 
Nome where the teacher has been working with fluent speakers and 
curriculum developers to create math lessons in Inupiaq.
    Incidentally, my two youngest sons learned to read in Inupiaq 
before they learned to read in English at Nikaitchuat, the tribal 
immersion school in Kotzebue, over twenty years ago. When they moved on 
to the public school, as with many other Nikaitchuat students, their 
academic reading skills were strong, not negatively impacted by having 
learned both how to read in Inupiaq first.
    There has been significant work by Indigenous groups around 
language revitalization, and what has become clear is that the work 
needs a new brand of curriculum and teacher preparation. Before we can 
teach children, we must have the right kind of teachers. For 
illustration of the kind of teacher needed, one of the effective models 
used in Salish language revitalization. The approach has produced 
proficient adult speakers who are equipped to teach through an 
Indigenous perspective using curriculum they have developed throughout 
their training. In this program, adult learners' work with elders 
transcribing stories that they have recorded. This generates advanced 
literature and documents for curriculum and publication. This process 
also importantly documents precious elder knowledge.
    The scenarios I have shared are just a few examples of Indigenous 
education that gives Alaska Native youth a sense of place and belonging 
that is absent in Western education. There are many exciting 
developments that are converging on this front and there is already 
synergy, collaboration and innovation amongst Alaskans who are seeking 
to transform the educational experience for Alaskan Native children. My 
hope is that you also have this vision and can support efforts to 
enable innovations like these to occur. Thank you for your time, and I 
am here to answer questions.

    Mr. Johnson, let's turn to you, please. Thank you.

 STATEMENT OF MICHAEL JOHNSON, COMMISSIONER, ALASKA DEPARTMENT 
                OF EDUCATION AND EARLY LEARNING

    Mr. Johnson. For the record, I am Michael Johnson, and I 
have the privilege to serve as Alaska's Commissioner of the 
Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
    Vice Chair Senator Murkowski, thank you for fitting us into 
your schedule, I know you are very busy visiting the State, and 
for holding this field hearing. Thank you for all your work on 
behalf of Alaska students that you do every day in the Senate.
    As Member Kowalski said, thank you to AFN, the State Board 
of Education, members of the legislature, the governor, all who 
have rallied around this vision.
    The vision of the State of Alaska's Department of Education 
and Early Development is set forth in Alaska State 14.03.015, 
stating that ``all students will succeed in their education and 
work, shape worthwhile and satisfying lives for themselves, 
exemplify the best values of society, and be effective in 
improving the character and quality of the world about them.''
    To accomplish this outcome, the Alaska State Board of 
Education adopted the priority to create the option for self-
governance compacting for the delivery of education between the 
State of Alaska and tribes or with tribally empowered Alaska 
Native organizations. As you know, while some students are able 
to flourish in our current system, far too many are not. We are 
not, and must not be satisfied with the current status of 
education outcomes provided for our students. When we see 
students not able to realize their full potential, even with 
the help of hard-working educators, we must examine the system 
that is failing our students.
    A State tribal education compact provides a pathway for the 
needed systemic change in Alaska. For this reason, our 
character and our conscience requires that we press on toward 
systemic change. Though I have no doubt there were many good 
intentions, our public education system started out without the 
proper understanding, respect, and vision for Alaska's 
students, particularly our Alaska Native students.
    Because of that lack of respect and understanding, and in 
some cases unfortunately deliberate disrespect, our education 
system has not had a positive impact on Alaska Native languages 
and culture. Our character and conscience now requires that we 
demonstrate our respect and value of Alaska Native culture and 
language by entering into compacts for education so our 
students can restore and revitalize what has been diminished by 
ineffective education outcomes.
    Supporting tribal education compacting recognizes that the 
growing achievement gap and educational failures are complex 
and not simply a result of the lack of hard work by educators 
or students. It sends a clear message that this is a problem 
with the system of education and as such can be fixed by 
addressing the need for systemic change. It is our obligation 
as educational leaders to provide the necessary supports to 
make this change. It can only come to fruition through true 
partnership and honest engagement.
    Throughout the past six years the Department of Education 
and Early Development, tribes, native organizations and other 
partners have had an ongoing conversation to determine what is 
needed for students to be able to be supported to shape 
worthwhile and satisfying lives for themselves.
    In 2018, at the elders and youth conference, our tribal 
liaison, Joel Isaac, asked the attendees, if they could design 
the perfect school, what would it look like? Here is how they 
replied, as summarized by Joel. They said, we would not get rid 
of math, reading, and writing, or all standardized tests, but 
we would have them secondary to cultural values; an equal 
amount of native and non-native teachers; the community would 
teach every child and there would be good food; traditional 
languages and English would both be taught; and there would be 
place-based curriculum.
    This same group of elders and youth said that their 
favorite thing about school was learning and learning new 
things. Our students deserve an educational system that 
provides for them a place to learn, belong, and excel at life. 
Compacting is a critical and necessary endeavor that needs to 
be supported by both the State of Alaska and the Federal 
Government.
    Finally, the pandemic has given us proof that this is our 
pathway forward. When the history of this pandemic is written, 
tribes will receive credit for how they responded and helped 
care for all Alaskans. Many schools remained open throughout 
this year because of compacted Tribal Health. Many of our 
teachers, students and their families, Alaska Native and non-
Native, were treated and/or vaccinated through Tribal Health.
    Tribes have proven that when we let go of the restrictive 
confines of our systems and partner and coordinate with tribal 
governments, good things happen for all Alaskans.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Johnson follows:]

Prepared Statement of Michael Johnson, Commissioner, Alaska Department 
                    of Education and Early Learning
    The vision of the State of Alaska's Department of Education and 
Early Development is set forth in Alaska Statute 14.03.015, stating 
that, ``all students will succeed in their education and work, shape 
worthwhile and satisfying lives for themselves, exemplify the best 
values of society, and be effective in improving the character and 
quality of the world about them.'' To realize this vison the Alaska's 
Education Challenge convened parents, lawmakers, teachers, and 
education leaders from across the state who collectively recognized the 
need for systemic change in Alaska's public education system. One of 
the Alaska Education Challenge's five strategic priorities encourages 
tribal and community ownership of excellence in education to help close 
the achievement gap and increase equitable access to an excellent 
education. To accomplish this outcome, the Alaska State Board of 
Education adopted the priority to create the option for self-governance 
compacting for the delivery of education between the state of Alaska 
and tribes or tribally-empowered Alaska Native organizations.
    While some students are able to flourish in our current system, far 
too many are not. We are not, and must not be satisfied with the 
current status of education outcomes provided for our students. When we 
see students not able to realize their full potential, even with the 
help of hard working educators, we must examine the system that is 
failing our students. A state tribal education compact provides a 
pathway for the needed systemic change in Alaska.
    For this reason, our character and conscience requires that we 
press on toward systemic change. Though I have no doubt that there were 
many good intentions, our public education system started out without 
the proper understanding, respect, and vision for Alaska's students, 
particularly our Alaska Native students. Because of that lack of 
respect and understanding, and in some cases deliberate disrespect, our 
education system has not had a positive impact on Alaska Native 
languages and culture. Our character and conscience now requires that 
we demonstrate our respect and value of Alaska Native culture and 
language by entering into compacts for education so our students can 
restore and revitalize what has been diminished by ineffective 
education outcomes.
    A compact is a government to government agreement that forms a 
partnership that is founded on the idea of shared vision, shared 
resources, and shared work. It provides the essential legal framework 
to be dynamically responsive while meeting the need for fiscal 
stability and accountability. While the Department of Education and 
Early Development is just starting to explore compacting with tribes, 
Alaska's tribes have decades of experience in compacting. The 
Department of Education and Early Development has spent the last six 
years to build understanding and research the state tribal compacting 
legal framework that would be necessary in Alaska. This includes 
Alaska's Education Challenge, hiring a project coordinator to focus 
specifically on tribal compacting, and the Alaska State Board of 
Education establishing a State Tribal Education Compacting committee.
    The state of Alaska works with the federal government through the 
Every Student Succeeds Act and various other federal titles and 
programs to carry out education in Alaska. There is a shared connection 
between the state and federal government for meeting the need for 
public education in Alaska. In addition, federally recognized tribes 
also have a relationship with the federal government. This is a 
significant consideration for Alaska as there are 229 federally 
recognized tribes in Alaska, and one out of every four students in 
Alaska is Alaska Native or American Indian. There are a large number of 
tribes in Alaska and Alaska is a large state comprising 1/5th of the 
United States land mass, however our population is small. This 
necessitates partnership and collaboration with state, federal, and 
tribal governments in order to meet the educational need in Alaska.
    It is important to note that State Tribal Education Compacting is 
an additional pathway for the delivery of public education in Alaska, 
it does not force or require tribes to enter into compacts. State 
Tribal Education Compacting does not terminate the current educational 
system. Rather, it works to create an additional path to allow tribes 
to conduct education through a culturally and linguistically authentic 
delivery system that is not possible unless tribes have the necessary 
recognized authority. Alaska is prime to implement compacting. The 
Alaska Cultural Education Standards are renowned and serve as a strong 
base for determining what success looks like in compacting. Tribes have 
decades of experience in compacting and many have what is known as 
mature compacting status with the federal government. Most importantly 
there are communities, families, and parents that are ready and willing 
to do this hard work to make this choice to improve the education 
outcomes for their students.
    Compacting recognizes the need for a systemic change that empowers 
families to help students thrive. It does so by creating an inherent 
sense of ownership, connection, and investment in the local community's 
educational system in a way that has not been demonstrated in the 
current system. Alaska is primed for success in state tribal compacting 
because of the many years of experience tribes have in compacting and 
the years of work that have gone into developing the Alaska Native 
Cultural Education and Educator Standards. However, there are several 
ways the federal government can work with us to ensure maximum success.
    Compacting fundamentally provides a critical mechanism for tribes 
to teach through their language and culture rather than trying to adapt 
to English ways of teaching. As a result careful consideration must be 
made to provide a method for evaluating student success in this 
cultural educational model. Alaska has already done the critical first 
step of defining Alaska Native Cultural Education Standards. There must 
be federal provision for assessments that demonstrate success based on 
the educational models and these rigorous Alaska Native Education 
Standards at the federal level. This in no way lowers the educational 
standards, however it provides a method that accounts for evaluating 
student success that captures proficiency in the Indigenous and Western 
education skills simultaneously.
    Supporting tribal education compacting recognizes that the growing 
achievement gap and educational failures are complex and not simply a 
result of the lack of hard work by educators or students. It sends a 
clear message that this is a problem with the system of education and 
as such can be fixed by addressing the need for systemic change. It is 
our obligation as educational leaders to provide the necessary supports 
to make this change. It can only come to fruition through a true 
partnership and honest engagement. Throughout the past six years the 
Department of Education and Early Development, tribes, and native 
organizations have had ongoing conversation to determine what is needed 
for students to be able to be supported to ``shape worthwhile and 
satisfying lives.''
    This is what tribal Elders and youth had to say when asked, ``If 
they could design the perfect school what would it look like?''
    I would not get rid of math, reading, and writing, or all 
standardized tests, but I would have them secondary to cultural values. 
An equal amount of native and non-native teachers. The community would 
teach every child and there would be good food. Traditional languages 
and English would both be taught. Place based curriculum.''
    This same group of Elders and youth said that their favorite thing 
about school was learning and learning new things. Our students deserve 
an educational system that provides for them to learn, belong, and 
excel at life. Compacting is a critical and necessary endeavor that 
needs to be supported by both the state of Alaska and the federal 
government.
    And finally, the pandemic has given us proof that this is our 
pathway forward. When the history of this pandemic is written, tribes 
will receive credit for how they responded and helped care for all 
Alaskans. Many schools remained open throughout this year because of 
compacted Tribal Health. Many of our teachers, students and their 
families, Alaska Native and non-native, were treated and or vaccinated 
through Tribal Health. Tribes have proven that when we let go of the 
restrictive confines of our systems, partner, and coordinate with 
tribal governments, good things happen for all Alaskans.
    Thank you.

    Senator Murkowski. Thank you very much. I appreciate that, 
Mr. Commissioner.
    Now we have Mr. William Naneng, who is with us virtually. 
He is with the Sea Lion Corporation. We will get him on the 
screen here.

     STATEMENT OF WILLIAM NANENG, GENERAL MANGER, SEA LION 
                          CORPORATION

    Mr. Naneng. Thank you, Honorable Vice Chairman Lisa 
Murkowski, and Honorable Chairman Brian Schatz. Good afternoon. 
Thank you for the invitation to talk today. My name is William 
Naneng, General Manager of Sea Lion Corporation, an Alaska 
Native Village Corporation in Hooper Bay, Alaska.
    As an advocate for those in my community and for rural 
Alaska education systems, my message to you is that the rural 
western education system has long recognized, for many reasons, 
that it has not successfully worked for our Alaska Native 
students. Its product has adversely affected many of the 
predominately Native populated communities.
    There is a process of attending to Alaska Native students' 
needs, experiences, and feelings, and intervening so that they 
learn particular things and go beyond the given. The new rural 
school statistics of the State of Alaska indicate Alaska 
Natives have the highest dropout and lowest college graduation 
rates in the Country. We have shown as an example of one 
possible way of seeing through the outcomes, Hooper Bay Charter 
School students academic assessments, we can begin to reverse 
those extremes in Alaska Native students coming out of most of 
our rural schools, beginning with this national U.S. Senate 
hearing to address what we all think of as the causes of the 
present condition. For instance, high rates of absenteeism 
among our Yupik students, which comes across as a lack of 
enthusiasm about learning and achieving to outsiders.
    What is perceived as lack may be further from reality. 
Yupik parents and our students want to succeed in reading, 
mathematics, and science.
    We have a continual problem in retention and high rates of 
suspension and expulsion among the students in our community. 
Native cultures have a lot to offer to the society, which can 
be used as a fulcrum to flip this all around.
    I live with these individuals and I have seen them 
successfully engage in our difficult and complex subsistence 
way of life. We are not seeking for shortcuts, enabling 
[indiscernible] get individauls to see how vital education is 
to us.
    In our community, indigenous families embodied change as we 
formed Hooper Bay Charter School and received final approval to 
operate by the State Board of Education in the autumn of 2019. 
Now, Hooper Bay Charter School has improved the lives of the 
students fourth through eighth grade in the short time we have 
operated.
    Our school must overcome continual challenges. Most 
notably, rural schools like Hooper Bay Charter School require 
funding for innovative pathways to train and employ local 
indigenous educators. Also, the charter school has been forced 
to lease inadequate space resulting in low enrollment. Our 
Alaska Native students are truly deserving of their own 
facility. It is imperative that communities like Hooper Bay 
have an assurance of equitable resources to pursue adequate 
education systems.
    Multi-age and multidisciplinary student pairing, having 
different age groups, age and grade groups in the classroom 
setting seems to facilitate higher learning and knowledge 
retention among Alaska Natives. This may be more culturally 
appropriate.
    Hooper Bay Charter School has used a multidisciplinary and 
multi-age approach to students in fourth through eighth grade. 
This interdisciplinary model has many advantages. It allows the 
students to learn by making connections between ideas and 
concepts across different disciplinary boundaries.
    Students learning in this way are able to apply the 
knowledge gained in one discipline to another different area 
and discipline in a way to deepen the learning experience. In 
this model, the students will become highly motivated and stay, 
having a vested interest in pursuing local science and 
engineering topics that are relevant to them. As a result, the 
content is often rooted in life experiences, giving authentic 
purpose for learning and connecting to a real-world context. 
Consequently, learning becomes meaningful, purposeful and 
deeper, resulting in a learning experience that stays with a 
student for a lifetime.
    An interdisciplinary model also allows students to cover 
topics more in-depth, because they are considering the many and 
varying perspectives from which a topic can be explored. 
Critical thinking skills are used and developed as students 
look across disciplinary boundaries to consider other points of 
view and begin to compare and contrast concepts across subject 
areas and synthesize ideas.
    There are also many advantages to a multi-grade model, 
namely the opportunity to experience leadership for older 
students, cooperative learning, and a culturally appropriate 
family and community inclusive atmosphere.
    In summary, as children growing up in rural Alaska and as 
first-time students, our parents, our elders, as they prepared 
us for school, they would project to us that the school was a 
safe environment by saying, be loving to others. Similarly, our 
charter school principal's model, as the students assemble for 
class, would say out loud, be kind to others, and have the 
students repeat the same words. The principal leads by 
instructions to the staff and to the students. The school 
encourages the parents and extended family members to be 
involved. This community involvement extends to the classified 
staff by allowing them to lead in TREKs.
    On the onset of the COVID pandemic and the uncertainty it 
created, the school put together lesson packets for each 
student. We had 65 percent pick-up of those instruction 
materials by parents. The staff delivered the remainder of the 
packets to their homes.
    Our observation through the grade school academic 
assessments in the first year of the charter school, the fourth 
through eighth grade students were not ready to be taught in 
the grade level that they entered, and they will not very 
achieve proficiency unless the instructors provided remedial 
lessons to get them near where they should be. The general 
schools and educational system have been moving Alaska Native 
students along so they end up graduating with a ninth or so 
grade level education.
    The strength and the success of the University of Alaska 
Anchorage, Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program is 
their adamance and insistence that student enrollment is based 
on their level of knowledge in subjects like reading and math. 
Otherwise, when many rural school graduates start off with 
college credit courses, they are set up for failure.
    This was the impetus for change in Hooper Bay. Our 
community took control of our students' academic future. When 
the charter school idea was proposed to the Alaska Native 
Village Corporation board of directors, the immediate 
acceptance did not happen overnight. Rather, it was built 
through many years of their educational support by providing 
scholarships and donations to student activities.
    When I went before the State Board of Education, the first 
two questions I was asked was, how would we get the parents 
involved and improve student attendance. My answer was, many 
students do not live in traditional family settings. Many of 
them live in dwellings with extended families and multiple 
single parents.
    Establishing the school with the approval of the State 
Board of Education, Lower Yukon School District Regional School 
Board and the Native Village of Hooper Bay, it offered our 
tribe a means to access Federal funding created to benefit 
Alaska Native students by developing new school activities 
based on science, technology, engineering, and offering 
remedial lessons, we were able to create curriculum which 
facilitates literacy, mathematics, and science in a manner that 
is culturally familiar to the students.
    More importantly, academic policy committee, the governing 
board has learned how fragile this is in its infancy, due 
mainly to lack of infrastructure like facilities and utilities 
that the Honorable Senator Murkowski had mentioned earlier. 
Many rural village political elected representatives also lack 
the savvy and resources to firmly establish the foundation it 
and the Sea Lion Board of Directors have built. Another being 
our disproportionate reliance on Federal funds.
    Our recommendations are, other than the need for proper 
public infrastructure of facilities and utilities, pedagogy is 
a universal concept. Our Yupik cultural way of knowing should 
be included by academics of elders participation. Elders guide 
practice by doing and experiential learning, detailed 
observation, intuitive analysis, cooperative learning and 
listening. Native elders understand about early childhood 
development, children's needs, and that they can succeed. The 
charter school has begun to develop curriculum that reflects 
our environment. This should become the Federal Indian 
education curriculum.
    Village science and village math used by Yupik elders 
should be used to make our youth understand the basic science 
and math concepts. Honoring our children's cultural lifestyle 
should be part of the focus of traditional learning of our 
Yupik way of life. Focusing on weather prediction, flora and 
fauna management, managing fisheries, learning subsistence 
fishing and hunting practices. It is about self-esteem. Above 
all, it means self-esteem.
    Just as Hooper Bay structured its charter system within the 
school district, this should expand, and expand more Indian 
education funding into this program. This is about local policy 
control.
    What I am recommending is not new. It is the Federal 
Government that can enact these policies to make innovation 
happen and make our Native students proud of who they are.
    The pedagogy of Alaska Native cultures taught in the school 
curriculum can only succeed if the State and Federal 
bureaucracies adopt the local sciences, mathematics, and Native 
lifestyles and accept it into the norm. Indian education funds 
should also be about local policy, local control and decision 
making.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Naneng follows:]

    Prepared Statement of William Naneng, General Manger, Sea Lion 
                              Corporation
    Good Afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to testify. My Name is 
Nuyaq William Naneng, General Manager of Sea Lion Corporation, an 
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 village corporation of 
Hooper Bay Alaska. Sea Lion Corporation has 643 shareholders of Yupik 
descent and seven directors who control investments and policy of our 
ANCSA corporation.
    As an advocate for those in my community and of rural Alaskan 
education systems, my message to you is that rural western education 
system has long recognized, for many reasons, that it has not 
successfully worked for our Alaska Native Students and its product has 
adversely affected many of the predominately Native populated 
communities. There is a process of attending to Alaska Native student's 
needs, experiences, and feelings, and intervening so that they learn 
particular things and go beyond the given. New rural school statistics 
of the State of Alaska indicator is showing as an example of one 
possible way, seen through outcomes of the Hooper Bay Charter School 
students' academic assessments. We can begin to reverse the extreme 
spectrums of Native people labeling coming out of most rural schools.
    Beginning with this national U.S. Senate hearing to address what we 
all think of are the causes of present conditions for instance, high 
rates of absenteeism among our Yupik students, which may come across as 
a lack of enthusiasm about learning and achieving to outsiders. What is 
perceived as a lack, may be farther from the reality. Yupik parents and 
our students want to succeed in reading, mathematics, and sciences. We 
have a continual problem in retention, and high rates of suspension and 
expulsion among the students in our community. Native cultures have a 
lot to offer to the society, which can be used as a fulcrum to flip 
this around. I live with these individuals and have seen them 
successfully engage in our difficult and complex subsistence way of 
life. We are not seeking for short cuts, enabling, but get individuals 
to see how vital the education is to us.
    In our community, indigenous families embodied change as we formed 
the Hooper Bay Charter School (HBCS) and received final approval to 
operate by the Alaska State Board of Education in the autumn of 2019. 
Now, the Hooper Bay Charter School is improving the lives of up to 60 
students, grades 4 through 8, every year. But our school must overcome 
challenges. Most notably, rural schools like Hooper Bay Charter School 
require funding for innovative pathways to train and employ local 
indigenous educators. Also, the charter school has been forced to lease 
inadequate space resulting in low enrollment. Our Alaska Native 
students are truly deserving of their own facility. It is imperative 
that communities like Hooper Bay have an assurance of equitable 
resources to pursue adequate education systems.
Multi-Age and Multi-Disciplinary
    Hooper Bay Charter School will use an interdisciplinary and multi-
age approach for students in grades 4 through 8. An interdisciplinary 
model has many advantages. It allows the student to learn by making 
connections between ideas and concepts across different disciplinary 
boundaries. Students learning in this way are able to apply the 
knowledge gained in one discipline to another different discipline as a 
way to deepen the learning experience. In this model, students will 
become highly motivated as they have a vested interest in pursuing 
local science and engineering topics that are relevant to them. As a 
result, the content is often rooted in life experiences, giving an 
authentic purpose for the learning and connecting it to a real-world 
context. Consequently, the learning becomes meaningful, purposeful and 
deeper resulting in learning experiences that stay with the student for 
a lifetime.
    An interdisciplinary model also allows students to cover topics in 
more depth because they are considering the many and varied 
perspectives from which a topic can be explored. Critical thinking 
skills are used and developed as students look across disciplinary 
boundaries to consider other viewpoints and begin to compare and 
contrast concepts across subject areas, synthesizing ideas.
    There are also many advantages to a multi-grade model, namely the 
opportunities to experience leadership (for older students), 
cooperative learning, and a culturally appropriate family- and 
community-inclusive atmosphere.
Summary
    As children growing up in rural Alaska and as first-time students, 
our parents or elders, as they prepared us for school, they'd project 
to us that the school was a safe environment by saying: ``be loving to 
others''. Similarly, our charter school principal's motto, as the 
students assemble for class would say out loud: ``be kind to others'' 
and have the students repeat the same words. The principal leads by 
instructions to the staff and to the students. The school encourages 
the parents or extended family members to be involved; this community 
involvement extends to the classified staff by allowing them to lead in 
TREKs. On the onset of the COVID pandemic and the uncertainty it 
created, the school put together lesson packets for each student and we 
had a 65 percent pick up of those instruction material by parents, and 
the staff delivered the remainder of the packets to their homes.
    Our observation through the grade student academic assessments in 
the first year of charter school; the 4th-8th grade students were not 
ready to be taught in the the grade level they enter and will not very 
well achieve proficiency, unless the instructors provide remedial 
lessons to get them near where they should be. The general schools and 
educational system have been moving the Alaska Native students along, 
so they end up graduating with 9th or so grade level education. The 
strength and the success of University of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska 
Native Science and Engineering Program is their adamant and insistent 
the student enrollment is based on their level of knowledge in subjects 
like reading and mathematics, otherwise when many rural school 
graduates start off with college credit courses, they are set up for 
failure.
    This was the impetus change in Hooper Bay, our community took 
control of our students' academic future. When the charter school idea 
was proposed to the Alaska Native village corporation board of 
directors, the immediate acceptance did not happen overnight. Rather, 
it was built through many years of their educational support of 
providing scholarships and donations to student activities. When I went 
before the Alaska State Board of Education, the first two questions I 
was asked: how would we get the parents involved and improve student 
attendance? My answer was many students do not live in traditional 
family setting, many of them live in dwellings with extended families 
and multiply single parents. Establishing the school with the approval 
of the Alaska State Board of Education, Lower Yukon School District 
Regional School Board and Native Village of Hooper Bay, it offered our 
Tribe, a means to access federal funds created to benefit Alaska Native 
students. By developing new school activities based upon Science, 
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and offer remedial lessons, we 
were able to create curriculum which facilitate literacy, mathematics 
and science in a manner that Is culturally familiar to the students.
    More importantly, Academic Policy Committee, the governing body has 
learned how fragile this is in its infancy, due mainly to lack of 
infrastructures in facilities and utilities and many rural village 
political elected representatives lacks the savvy, and resources to 
firmly establish the foundation it and the Sea Lion Corporation Board 
of Directors have built. Another being our disproportionate reliance on 
federal funds.
Recommendations

        1. Other than the need for proper public infrastructures of 
        facility and utilities, Pedagogy is a universal concept. Our 
        Yupik cultural ways of knowing should be included by Academics 
        of Elders participation. Yupik Elders guide practice by doing/
        experiential learning, detailed observation, intuitive 
        analysis, cooperative learning and listening. Native Elders 
        understand about early childhood development, children's needs, 
        and that we can succeed. The Charter School has begun to 
        develop curriculum that relects our environment. This should 
        become part of the federal Indian Education curriculum.

        2. Village science and village math used by Yupik Elders should 
        be used to make our youth understand basic science and math 
        concepts.

        3. Honoring our children's cultural lifestyles should be part 
        of teaching to focus traditional learning of our Yupik Way of 
        Life. Focusing on weather prediction, flora and fauna 
        management, managing fisheries, leaning subsistence fishing and 
        hunting practices, etc. It's all about self-esteem.

        4. Just like Hooper Bay structured its own charter system 
        within the school district, this should expand. Expand more 
        Indian Education funding into this program. This is about local 
        policy control.

    What I am recommending is not new. It's the federal government that 
can enact such policies to make innovation happen to make our Native 
students proud of who we are.
    The pedagogy of Native cultures taught in the school curriculum can 
only succeed if state and federal bureaucracies adopt local sciences, 
mathematics, and Native lifestyles are accepted into the norm. Indian 
Education funds should be about local policy control and 
responsibility.

    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, William. I appreciate that.
    It has been helpful to hear both from William and Sandy in 
terms of the reason why we are having this discussion about 
alternatives and recognizing the role that compacting can play 
here.
    I want to start off my questions, perhaps a little more 
technical, and I will direct them to you, Julie, and to you, 
Commissioner. It is kind of along the lines of how we will 
effectuate this.
    We have, as part of the record, we have written testimony 
that has been provided to us by the U.S. Department of 
Education. It states that STEC schools in Alaska would be 
eligible for the department's formula funding if the schools 
are authorized by the State in a way that meets the Federal 
definition of a local educational agency or a school district. 
We know that formula funds, whether Title 1 grants that come, 
or Title 2, Title 4, Impact Aid, these are all programs that 
would be eligible through the department.
    So we are at a point where we are trying to figure out how 
we advance this through the State. I guess the question to you, 
Julie, is whether or not you are satisfied with the Department 
of Education's testimony that seems to indicate that we don't 
need legislative authority or a demonstration here in Alaska. 
Are we in a good place there? We have legislation that is 
working its way through the process. But I am trying to make 
sure that here in the State, we are going to be doing something 
consistent that U.S. Department of Education is going to be 
good with our approach.
    Ms. Kitka. Madam Chair, I think the best way to think of 
this is we are doing a hybrid. So there will be a Federal role 
and there is a State role. We want to protect the Federal trust 
responsibility on education, but we also want to maximize the 
State of Alaska's responsibility under the constitution of what 
they are obligated to do. So it is really a hybrid.
    Senator Murkowski. Do you think that hybrid, if I can 
interject, do you think that hybrid does protect the Federal 
trust responsibility when it comes to --
    Ms. Kitka. With regard to the Federal trust responsibility, 
that is what I would consider a living responsibility. It will 
always adapt and change. It is kind of like the way I describe 
ANSCA. It is a living law, intended to meet the real social and 
economic needs of Native people. So we keep coming back to the 
Congress, we need this, we need that, as circumstances change.
    It is the same way with the Federal trust responsibility in 
education. It depends on the needs of our people and what we 
need from the Federal Government and the Federal Department of 
Education. Nothing will ever ``satisfy'' it, but do I think 
that there needs to be legislation introduced today on the 
Federal level to authorize compact schools? No. Do I think that 
we need to remove the rider? Yes. I think that will be good, 
and it would also be a sign that we are moving more to equity 
in treating Alaska Native education, but it doesn't need to 
immediately turn anything upside down.
    Senator Murkowski. Let me ask you about that, though, on 
the rider itself. I understand what you shared about why you 
are making that specific ask here. But I want to make sure that 
it is clear, you are not suggesting that we have BIE schools 
here in Alaska.
    Ms. Kitka. This is all forward-looking. It is not 
backwards. We are not asking for BIA schools. We are asking for 
State schools with the Federal trust responsibility supported. 
At this time what we think the Federal Government needs to do 
is remove that barrier.
    We also think that the Federal Government should 
incentivize innovation. We need more funding and resources for 
incorporating indigenous knowledge into curriculum. I will give 
as an example, AFN had a National Science Foundation grant 
together with the Annenberg Foundation that went for 10 years. 
It was all on incorporating indigenous knowledge into 
curriculum. We need to multiply that and scale those types of 
efforts up.
    That effort, we had a partnership with the State, we had a 
partnership with 23 school districts, the University of Alaska. 
We had Oscar Kowagley, we had a number of distinguished Native 
educators involved in that. We need to scale up those types of 
opportunities but particularly incorporating indigenous 
knowledge into curriculum, also into teacher development and 
preparation. There just is not enough current resources going 
into these things. We think those two in particular need to go 
side by side with the compacting.
    Plus, we need to have the Federal Department of Education 
incentivize innovation. Whether or not you are talking about 
the XPrize----
    Senator Murkowski. Are you talking about incentivizing the 
innovation? Because I think that is what we are talking about 
here, we are trying to look at the delivery of education 
outside of just the math and reading. So share with me what you 
think that might look like.
    Ms. Kitka. I think, to use an adaptation of technology, the 
e-learning. In our health system, we are moving a lot to the 
tele-health. How can we incentivize our schools and our systems 
to develop the best of the best? Really, my standards for the 
compacting and for our whole education system is, I think we 
have a race to catch up to keep those standards up really high.
    So incentivizing adaptation of technology, incentivize the 
development of curriculum, incentivize collaboration. One of 
the things that I think this work with Commissioner Johnson has 
proved is we can do a lot more working together with the State 
and Federal Government than just by ourselves. Incentivize 
collaboration, ways that we work together, not one telling 
another what to do on that, but work together.
    I really do think our future as Native people here depends 
on our developing our young people to be the best they can be, 
that they are well-grounded, they are secure, they are healthy, 
the sky is the limit on what they can do, whether they want to 
be an astronaut, a scientist, a teacher, if they want to be a 
fisherman. We cannot lower our aspirations for our children.
    But what we have to have is an educational system that 
values where they come from, their culture and values, and 
support what their parents want for them on their culture and 
values, and not have people at odds with each other. That is 
where I think we can make some systemic change. I know people 
have said, well, how do you measure some of this? I think we 
have to let that process go as we are having our tribes 
negotiate with the State, and go through the negotiation 
process, where you would build accountability into these 
compacts. But let some of that unfold, we don't have the 
answers all today. But we do know what we want, we want better 
things for our children.
    But we also pay attention on the Federal level. There are 
these massive resources moving around from the infrastructure 
bill and other things. Some of that will be going into 
education. We don't want any of that to be prohibited for our 
rural areas and our communities.
    Senator Murkowski. Let me ask you, Dr. Johnson, on this 
issue of how do we judge success? That is a question I would 
actually like to ask all of you. What is that metric of success 
for our Native students around the State? You deal with a 
system that has assessment standards that you have to meet in 
order to take advantage of certain Federal resources, that 
level of accountability. Oftentimes you don't have the level of 
flexibility that I think we would like to have as we are trying 
to allow for a transformative approach to education.
    But when you are trying to make this systemic change, that 
can be a bit of a challenge, too. So I think I neglected to 
just say thank you for the extraordinary collaboration I think 
we have had between the State and AFN and so many on this 
issue. I think it demonstrates a commitment to get to yes, and 
to try to be innovative in this space.
    But you have a situation, again, where STEC schools still 
have to work in coordination with U.S. Department of Education. 
They have their requirements in terms of what eligibility for 
receiving Federal formula grants, what those requirements are 
for STEC schools. So it is going to be, as I understand it, it 
is going to be DEED that is going to be responsible for 
determining whether or not the STEC schools meet the definition 
that has been set out by the Department of Education. So it is 
not Department of Education there.
    But are you comfortable with where we are right now in 
ensuring that this pilot that we are talking about and these 
schools can be authorized in conformance with this definition? 
It is kind of technical and weedy. But yet, when we are trying 
to talk about resources that come, we want to make sure that we 
are going to be setting this up in a way to take full advantage 
of those resources. Are we in a good space?
    Mr. Johnson. Thank you for the question. I think so, but 
first, I will say the department, we are proceeding making 
assumptions that, because we are in a good space that we will 
be in a good space tomorrow. But it is a complex system that we 
are operating here. We certainly want to be respectful of that 
and respectful of all our partners. So we are trying to proceed 
carefully and cautiously.
    The second thing I would say is, the reason I feel like we 
are in a good space is because my confidence isn't in the 
bureaucracy, it is in our partnership with the tribes and AFN. 
Thank you for the part you played in providing COVID relief 
funding. We saw that as a great opportunity, so we called AFN 
and said, would you be willing to partner with us, and we could 
give them a grant. Because the way it seems like we have always 
done it before is the bureaucracy has confidence in itself and 
then presents possibilities. But what we decided is, we can 
give them a grant and say, will you help us imagine the 
possibilities, then the bureaucracy reacts to that instead of 
the other way around.
    So I think we are in a good spot, because we are placing 
our confidence in the partnership with the tribes rather than 
the bureaucracy. They are helping us navigate our own 
bureaucracies, because they have expertise, especially with the 
Federal Government, that we don't have.
    Senator Murkowski. We just have to look at it a little bit 
differently, which is what we are trying to do here, is look at 
things a little bit differently.
    But to the point that Julie made in terms of assessments, 
we kind of figure that out as we go. You are in a situation 
here where you are going to be introducing new statewide 
assessments, I guess a whole assessment system later this year. 
How do we fit this in that? Walk me through that. Again, I 
realize that we may be trying to push something, or the round 
peg into a square hole type of thing. If we are, tell me that. 
Because I want us to be in a place where again, we are able to 
maximize resources, maximize partnerships. But I also know that 
when you are dealing with Federal funding and opportunity, they 
are not as flexible a system as we would like them to be.
    Mr. Johnson. Right. So I guess I will start with the place 
where I think we all are aligned, the U.S. Department of 
Education, the Secretary. He was invited and spoke on this at 
AFN and we appreciated that. The tribes and the State 
bureaucracy, the Department of Education, the place where I 
think we all agree is the destination. That is a great 
education for every kid. And the Federal Government, the 
Federal bureaucracy, everybody acknowledges that that is where 
we all want to be.
    What we are proposing is not a new destination, but a 
journey, a new pathway to get to that destination. That is 
where we have to work through all these rigid requirements, and 
things like that. So we keep reminding everybody of what we 
agree on.
    The other thing I would say is, the reason I think this is 
a great time is because after the pandemic, there is a hunger 
to explore new ways of doing things. What did we learn from the 
pandemic, and what is it going to look like post-pandemic. That 
includes the U.S. Department of Education . I know in meetings 
that I have with my fellow State chiefs, they may not know what 
that looks like but there is certainly an appetite there to 
explore.
    So I think the time is right, as President Kitka said. We 
may not have all the answers today, but it seems like the 
opportune time to be connecting with those partners and say, we 
have an idea and maybe this is an idea that will satisfy that 
appetite there seems to be for innovation.
    So that doesn't provide you a specific example. I just 
think the time is opportune.
    Senator Murkowski. I appreciate this. Because as I am 
listening to you, I am thinking, wow, I lead off with all the 
reasons why it can't be done, all of these barriers that are 
out there because you have this inflexible system. I am just 
reminded of the desire to try to do something different, even 
though you know that you have a system that is just hard. But I 
think it is also a recognition that the status quo is not 
helping our kids.
    Mr. Johnson. Right.
    Senator Murkowski. If you just sit back and accept the 
status quo, we will put more generations of young Alaska 
Natives behind.
    Sandy, I want to ask you, because I had the benefit of 
having my two sons in a language immersion program here in 
Anchorage. It was a two-way immersion. The thing that I loved 
most about it was when your son, who is in kindergarten, first 
grade, says, I am so smart on the first day of the class, 
because the teacher is talking in English, and I get it. Then 
in the afternoon, when it's full-on Spanish, he doesn't know 
the words, his best buddy who was maybe struggling on the 
English side of the morning, is now the expert. It empowers the 
language and the skills, it is so empowering in ways that I 
think sometimes as adults we forget that.
    But I also recognize that we can't do any of this unless we 
have the teachers. William has mentioned the role of the elders 
involved, which I know we value and we appreciate. But I am 
curious to know as to how we build out the teachers that we 
need in order to do what every one of you is suggesting. 
Because we just can't take a teacher who has been in the 
classroom here who is a super-great math teacher, but she may 
be from Iowa, great teacher, but you can't make that 
translation to what we are talking about here."
    So what do we need to be doing more of? The fact that we 
are here at APU, the fact that Ilisagvik has good programs, 
what more do we need to do? How can Congress help to facilitate 
the growth of more of our educators?
    Ms. Kowalski. Let me start off by describing the vision I 
have for what a teacher program might be like. First of all, 
that we it look nothing the teacher programs we have now. 
Because in order to revitalize language and culture in the 
community, you have to prepare the adults who are going to be 
teaching in those classrooms how to cycle through and create 
more of a curriculum. There isn't a lot of curriculum material 
readily available for an immersion program. Some are farther 
ahead, but there isn't a lot. It is going to take decades of 
that kind of forward-moving work to make this the corpus strong 
for language revitalization.
    So a teacher preparation program has to orient a teacher 
who can work with elders, that is why it looks nothing like the 
teacher pathway program we have now, who can work with elders, 
who can work with transcriptions and translation and help 
create that corpus of material that is being captured with the 
elder right then, or even from elder recordings from the 1970s 
and 1980s. In my region, we have tons of valuable environmental 
knowledge captured in recordings when John Shaffer and other 
people who were just coming out at the time in ANSCA, they 
realized those resources were going to be needed. They saw 
ahead, and they created programs where all of that was 
captured.
    So our teachers, our future teachers in an indigenous 
school, need to able to approach all that knowledge. So they 
have to become adult learners of the language right away. And 
they have to be able to approach elders in a way that helps 
capture that knowledge that the elders have, and capture the 
way that the elders understand learning should be.
    I don't think there is an elder I have ever worked with who 
doesn't understand from their life experience in the rural 
community how we should treat each other. That is important. So 
our teachers have to be oriented toward an indigenized way of 
approaching and creating a classroom environment. That happens 
by working with the elders, by working with others who working 
in this effort, and working with the knowledge that it is 
important for our students who are going to be in that 
classroom, that knowledge that is going to be totally grounded 
in history, culture, stories, celebrations, those exist. We are 
rapidly losing elders who know it.
    Senator Murkowski. Is that being done anywhere?
    Ms. Kowalski. It is, yes. There are language revitalization 
programs that help, that do capture the elders' knowledge and 
create teachers while they are capturing the elders' knowledge. 
The Salish language program in the northwest area is an example 
of a revitalization effort that, it sounds small, right now it 
is like eight teachers who have graduated as proficient 
language speakers.
    But when you think about gaining eight language speakers, 
the offside is like my language right now, we don't have that, 
we are just losing speakers every year. And we are losing the 
elder ones. The Salish language program and other language 
revitalization efforts are creating young adult speakers with 
decades of professional years ahead of them for teaching in 
classrooms, creating curriculum, helping our government 
councils bring back the language into governance work. It is 
ripe right now.
    I do have to say, there is a lot of energy out there from 
young people who are graduating from college with communication 
degrees, education degrees, engineering degrees, where they are 
trying to make space in their own personal life, knowing they 
will be a young parent or aunt or uncle. They are also making 
space for this type of work and energy while they perform full-
time lives. They are also the people who are creating the 
vision for the future. They see themselves as parents and 
grandparents. They already know that they are going to be 
elders who have a responsibility to recapture and move forward 
things that we have lost in the last 50 years.
    Senator Murkowski. So let me ask, on that, William, you 
mentioned this, that you had a couple of challenges, you wanted 
to try to do more to involve parents in the schools, but also 
to get student attendance up. It is this issue of parents in 
the schools, whether it is just to be an involved parent, or to 
get that adult who is saying, I want to be that teacher, I want 
to be that elder, I want to be there to share the cultural 
values there as part of the classroom. I think we all know that 
for many that are not in school now, but who went through 
school, that the education system was not only not built for 
them, it was something that they have tried to forget. As they 
have tried to forget, it has been a challenge to not only 
involve themselves as parents in the school, but even to 
encourage their children that attending school is meaningful.
    So William, I don't know if you can speak to that aspect of 
it and share if you have seen a level of success in doing that. 
But I think it is something that we can get the students, get 
the young people excited about what is going on the classroom. 
But I am worried that there is a generation gap in terms of, 
not enthusiasm for education, but just feeling the value of 
being in that school.
    So William, I would like you to speak to that, then 
Commissioner, if you can comment on that as well, I thank you. 
William?
    Mr. Naneng. Thank you, Senator Murkowski. We suggest that 
while we are waiting for things to change externally, we need 
innovation in instruction, that can help to teach all students 
where they are in their learning pathways. All too often, we 
think that learning science and math, also cultural learning, 
are outside, or they are in the core curriculum of our people. 
For too long, culture has been a separate class. This does not 
help Native students learn.
    I would like to share one thing. Our people here know when 
there is going to be a successful berry season by looking at 
the environment that is happening right now. When there is a 
crust of ice on top of the snow, we can predict there will be 
an abundant berry season. Also, at this time, until the breakup 
of the Yukon River, if there is a prevailing wind that is going 
on, we know that there is going to be an abundance of salmon.
    This climate change that we are observing right now has 
caused that prevailing wind that used to go to the Gulf of 
Alaska to now come up the Bering Sea, and it is blowing that 
water that is coming onto the Yukon maybe across to the cost of 
Siberia. So that could be one of the main reasons why there 
might be salmon crises that are happening. The salmon catches 
that are happening right now may not be getting reported across 
the Bering Sea.
    Science and math are already in our culture. It is not a 
western concept. The western concept of science and math is 
based on Native culture, Native culture. Those are my answers.
    I was going to provide an example, maybe I should mention 
it right now, the Pythagorean theorem is only known now as we 
know it because it was written then. But it was used by Native 
people thousands of years before. So that is my answer.
    Senator Murkowski. Math and science are what we would 
classify as the educational attainment, but you are probably 
learning more in physics and science, and to your point, the 
Pythagorean theorem.
    Commissioner, in terms of the parental involvement aspect, 
and what that means also for student engagement, would you 
comment on that?
    Mr. Johnson. Yes, I think, and maybe I will start broad and 
comment. You articulated this well. I can go to bed and sleep 
well at night knowing there are risks in doing something 
different. It is really hard to sleep well at night knowing 
that we are going to get up and do the same thing that we did 
yesterday and get the same outcomes.
    So I think that we don't, I think the whole concept of 
tribal compacting is to do just that, to create more of an 
engagement, student engagement and parent engagement, and do 
that through a new journey to that destination of a great 
education through tribal compacting.
    I think that, and you said this well, too, in other places 
in the Country the public education system is truly viewed as a 
place of opportunity. So people see that as an economic pathway 
out of poverty and those sorts of things.
    But because of our history, I think Alaska Native people 
see the public education system, because of what happened, as 
more of assimilation than opportunity. So by doing tribal 
compacting, we give them an opportunity, we all can let go of 
how that has happened, and have a new beginning with a new kind 
of system that will have risks associated with it, because it 
is new. But it won't be the same system that created that kind 
of context.
    Senator Murkowski. Let me ask each of you, and I suggested 
it a few minutes ago, the proposal that we are talking about 
which would be this education compact between the State and the 
tribes, I should ask, do you see a role for the ANCs?
    Ms. Kitka. Yes. The first part on that is, when we talk 
about the demonstration, we don't know yet how many projects it 
will be. It might be 10, it might be 15, it might be 5, it 
might be 3.
    Senator Murkowski. Will it be dependent on capacity?
    Ms. Kitka. It will depend a lot on capacity and how quickly 
the Commissioner and his team can scale up, and skilled we are 
at facilitating negotiations on key things, as well as, again, 
I view it as the incentives that you put all around it, that 
people have the resources that they need to do.
    In regard to the role for corporations, you are as familiar 
as I am that corporations are considered Indian tribes for 
certain purposes under Federal law. In fact, I think for about 
200 different laws that they are considered. I think that is an 
open question, whether or not that plays into this compacting 
of schools right now. I don't believe the corporations using 
their tribal status do any compacting at all. But we are not 
looking at precluding anybody from anything. At this point, we 
are just trying to test it out.
    One of the areas that we also thought would be a selling 
point for this compacting is looking at the experience of the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs when they did compacting for the first 
time. Congress authorized 10 tribes to embark on that. Tlingit 
and Haida was the first one from Alaska that participated. They 
studied it really, really carefully, the budget, so that when 
they were in negotiations with the State they knew what they 
were talking about, they knew what they meant to do and what 
they couldn't do.
    The second year the opened it up for 10 more tribes. And 
Kawerak in Nome was the second tribe and organization that was 
able to take advantage of it. They built on what Tlingit and 
Haida did in studying the budget.
    I remember when we Loretta Bullard executed that first 
compact for Kawerak. They were able to squeeze out of the 
system $750,000 that went more to the grassroots level and was 
picked up on by different levels of the government. So I think 
not only compacting is an efficient mechanism on that, but I 
think we will see, as we build more flexibility into that, we 
will be able to stretch the resources.
    Senator Murkowski. Then to the question that I was going to 
ask of each of you, we are able to stand up a project, and 
again, how many has yet to be defined. Many things still to be 
defined. What would you describe as success from this education 
compacting? How do you define success? I will let you start, 
and we will just go around the table.
    Ms. Kitka. I would define success as tribal ownership over 
education. I look back to when we first started dealing with 
the sobriety movement in the Native community. We had lots of 
problems with alcohol.
    Then all of a sudden, you had one person stand up at the 
AFN convention and say, you know what, I quit drinking and it's 
now been 10 years. Then a little bit later, you would have 
more. You had a whole shift in attitude and respect in the 
Native community, where they no longer would tolerate drinking 
in public Native meetings. In fact, it became a badge of honor 
when you could talk about what you had done and how you were 
doing it.
    I think success is, at the AFN convention you have 
communities saying, we have finally taken over this education 
system, look at what we are accomplishing and doing, and look 
how well our children are. We have great attendance records and 
our children are learning about their history, they are 
learning about their environment.
    I think you will see the growing sense of that. It is not 
something you will be able to tell them the first year or 
second. It is when the enthusiasm and the energy is harnessed 
to make that happen. Health compacting could have fallen flat. 
In fact, the negotiations for the health consortium, that 
negotiation went on two years, then they hit a roadblock. They 
couldn't get that last part. Congress had to come in and step 
in, that expression, divide the baby, solve the last problem 
for that to go forward.
    We may have that same thing in education, where people put 
in the work, but you have one particular obstacle that is in 
our way. In that case, go back to the legislature and say, 
wait, we have a problem here, we need more flexibility here, go 
to the Congress and say, we need more flexibility. But it is 
building up that momentum and that enthusiasm where people are 
really proud.
    I think you will just see it over the years, even just at 
the AFN convention, on helping with education, what 
[indiscernible] that pride. You give people the ownership and 
they will take the responsibility, and giving them the 
flexibility to do it.
    Senator Murkowski. Sandra, how would you define success? 
Maybe in your view, because you have been involved in different 
approaches, clearly, maybe it is not necessarily the 
compacting, but what does success look like with regard to 
education for Alaska Native children?
    Ms. Kowalski. Long view and short view. So, long view, 
adults will be professionals, they will have certificates, they 
will be able to support their families and provide for their 
families, from the land, from employment. And they will be able 
to communicate with their elders and their future generation in 
their indigenous language. Because in that language 
encapsulates everything that makes us strong.
    Short view, how would we know this is working? You will 
have students who aren't dropping out, they see themselves in 
their curriculum and their daily activities in school, because 
they go home to an environment that is right now very different 
than a lot of classrooms, the way that they are set up. But 
they will be more engaged in school, will have a higher 
graduation rate, less absenteeism.
    I took notes when William was talking, because I remember 
that, William, that absenteeism was one of the reasons you guys 
went the charter school route. That is a real issue. When I was 
in Northwest Arctic just recently, one of our communities 
talked about the high absenteeism rate.
    The Inupiaq instructor said, that is funny, because on 
Inupiaq days, all those kids who are never here come back to 
school that day. They come back to fish with their teachers, 
they come back to get in a boat, get on the land. But they are 
not attending school those other days. Which to me says that 
the real disconnect of that human spirit, and yes, there are 
other things that happen, including do parents support the 
education that your child is getting in a school that exists 
right now.
    What I see right now kind of goes back to some of the 
things Julie said about leveraging technology and the resources 
that will provide, or an innovative school, it is kind of 
happening already. We have young parents learning these 
cultural practices through social media right now. I am telling 
you, there is in-depth interest and movement on the part of 
young parents and young family members. They are already 
innovating, moving, sharing, connecting already through some of 
the social media platforms that have broken down barriers for 
them.
    I do think that when these parents see the schools also 
teaching some of the things for themselves, you are going to 
see high parent engagement. I don't know if you remember 
GearUP, the Federal program that used to operate, it was a 
college preparatory program for middle school. They had GearUp 
in my district.
    We thought what we were doing was providing opportunities 
for seventh grade students to understand the training and 
career opportunities that could be provided for them in the 
region. But we had a challenge with how we were going to 
chaperone seventh graders to come into one village together to 
do this.
    So the best way out for us was to plan for their parents to 
travel with them. It turned out the parents were way more 
engaged than their students about what we were teaching their 
seventh-grade students, because they hadn't seen those 
opportunities either, yet. The same thing has the potential to 
happen in this transformed educational system. Parents will 
finally have the opportunity to reengage in learning 
opportunities they didn't have provided for them. I think that 
could be a powerful message to the elders who are waiting for 
this to happen and the children who need for this to happen.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you. Commissioner?
    Mr. Johnson. As I said before, I think success, the 
destination hasn't changed. That is, and maybe you were in the 
legislature when this was put in statute, but 14.03.015, that 
``all students will succeed in their education and work, shape 
worthwhile and satisfying lives for themselves, exemplify the 
best values of society, their culture, and be effective in 
improving the character and quality of the world about them.'' 
I think that is still success.
    I would add, based on your opening comments and the events 
of the day, that would include treasuring their freedom and 
being willing to defend it.
    Second, I would say that I think success is something that 
we have already seen and got a taste of, which is why we are 
here and so passionate about moving this forward. Sandy alluded 
to it, and that is that Alaska Native people are super-excited 
about educating their kids in the system that they get to do 
that in.
    We have seen through this conversation a partnership with 
AFN, so many people, hundreds of people showing up to webinars 
that President Kitka has hosted, really interested in this 
topic, and educating their kids. I think that is a taste of 
success that should motivate all of us to keep going and 
exploring this pathway.
    Senator Murkowski. William, what do you see as success?
    Mr. Naneng. Thank you. I would like to let the tribes know 
that what goes in front of them are theirs, they own it. Also 
learning helps the students, encourage students that are 
stewards of their community.
    So I would like our students and our instructors to know 
that all this, science, math, and literacy are ours. I want to 
say that when we engage in subsistence activity, when we go 
out, we may not always succeed or get what we are going out 
for. We may have to go out maybe multiple times before we even 
are able to harvest or gather what we go out to do.
    So like our Commission stated, it is a process. It is not 
something that you just learn one time. You have to continually 
learn it. It is not just a one-time thing. I would like our 
tribes to know that what goes in front of them are theirs. That 
is a success.
    Senator Murkowski. It is about that ownership.
    We are just about to the 4:00 o'clock hour, which means we 
have to wrap here. But I want to give everybody an opportunity 
to make any final or concluding remarks that they want to make 
sure we get on the record.
    But before we do that, I am going to ask one last question 
to you, Commissioner, just in terms of readiness within the 
department to undertake the kind of demonstration project that 
we are taking on. In that, do you look at this as different 
than what the State engages with, for instance, communities 
that are wanting to establish some type of charter school or 
other school type? Do you have a model that you can work with 
to make this easier, or is this entirely different? I am 
wondering about the readiness on your end.
    Mr. Johnson. Thank you. We are ready, and part of that is 
because we have the good fortune of having a State board of 
education that said, be ready, we think this is a priority. So 
we are ready. That doesn't mean we have all the answers. But I 
don't want us to have all the answers and give to them. I want 
to have this partnership. Because that is what is making it 
work.
    So we have models that I think we can draw upon, but not 
one that we want to set on the table and say, let's do this. We 
want to create this new pathway and journey with our partners, 
and build something new. Instead of, as I said before, us 
building it and saying, hey, here is a great new idea, letting 
them say, hey, could we do this, and work with it.
    So I think our charter laws in this State require that 
everything runs through the local school board and tribal 
compacting would be different in that. So our charter laws in 
Alaska wouldn't be the perfect model. But there are other 
States with different kinds of charter laws that can inform the 
pathway. I know AFN and others are looking at those models. You 
mentioned the State of Washington.
    So we have lots of resources to draw upon. But at the end 
of the day, I hope this looks very Alaskan, and has lots of 
fingerprints on it.
    Senator Murkowski. I think you said it, Sandra, I wrote it 
down here somewhere, it is education by Alaska Natives and for 
Alaska Natives.
    So we are at 4 o'clock. I would like to offer each of you 
an opportunity to share anything to supplement what you have 
already said, or if something has not been touched upon, we 
welcome that. I have been going around the table this way, so I 
think I am going to go to our friend and colleague who is here 
virtually. William, if you would like to add anything final.
    Also know that, I am not meaning to put you on the spot, 
but this record is going to be held open, so there will be an 
opportunity to supplement in writing. But I know it is 
oftentimes just much easier while we are in the midst of this 
conversation, to add any final thoughts you might have.
    Mr. Naneng. Thank you, Senator Murkowski. We need a system 
that supports tribes' ability to educate our own students. This 
includes infrastructure, infrastructure for buildings, culture, 
and language
     Right now, we struggle, how can we do this. Many of our 
first-time Yupik immersion parents are not Yupik speakers, 
Yupik is something that they don't know. So somehow, one of the 
innovation steps might be to do some reverse engineering, or 
something like that. That is my thought. Thank you.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you. I so appreciate what you 
provided to the Committee, and your leadership out there in 
Hooper Bay. Thank you very much.
    Commissioner Johnson, final thoughts?
    Mr. Johnson. Just to thank you, again, for holding the 
hearing. I thank your staff for all the support they provided 
leading up to it. Thank you for all the partners.
    I am not afraid, I am not worried, I have every confidence 
that tribes in Alaska are going to help light this pathway 
forward, and that in the future, I will look back and consider 
it a great privilege that I got to be part of this 
conversation. Thank you.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you. We appreciate your leadership 
at the State level. We know it is not an easy job. But I will 
tell you, it is very heartening as one who deals with folks who 
work within, whether it is State administrations or Federal 
administrations. Oftentimes there is a hesitancy to try to 
explore new ideas, because it is just harder. So not only your 
willingness, but the State Board of Education, the 
administration that is behind this, it is appreciated. Thank 
you for that.
    Ms. Kowalski. I will just put this out there, I know you 
asked the Commissioner if the department was ready. There 
really is a sense right now of move forward and not to move 
forward right now. It is because of how carefully this has to 
be done, so that nothing pulls the breath out of it in the 
future.
    So when we ask the department, are you ready, they are as 
ready as they should be. Because me as a State board member, I 
am going to be saying, the department better not get in the 
way. So you had better be ready to be not ready, so that there 
is time to understand what negotiation is, and all of that, all 
of those pieces are key.
    So when people say they want us to go, I have State board 
members who ride in the car with me and are like, Sandy, why 
aren't we doing anything? It has to be done well enough that it 
is going to be a successful demonstration project. There is so 
much that is going to come before that I don't even understand 
it. People like Julie understand it much better.
    I think it is important that we make sure it is done well 
and done right and it absolutely gets to the heart of what our 
tribes really want. So there is going to be a lot of local-ness 
to it as well. I just wanted to say that.
    Senator Murkowski. That is good advice. I think there is a 
desire to make it happen, but we also want to make it happen 
right. It should not be viewed as, well, that was a nice social 
experiment.
    Ms. Kowalski. Right.
    Senator Murkowski. This is about kids, children, and their 
education. So keeping that always top of mind, and ensuring 
that while we want to move with efficiency, we do want to make 
sure we have it right. Thank you for that guidance.
    Julie?
    Ms. Kitka. Thank you so much for your time and attention. I 
will leave one mental image for you, when you think about this 
tribal compacting. We need partners on the Federal side to go 
along with us. We are going to need additional resources in 
incorporating indigenous knowledge into the curriculum.
    I will give you an example. Think of the map of Alaska that 
we all know, and the map of the United States where Alaska is 
in a little box. Think how difficult it is to try to convince 
other Americans how big Alaska is and how important it is, and 
that we are one-fifth the size of the United States.
    Just because the educational system and the culture have 
put us in a little box, that is what we are going to be trying 
to overcome in this whole system. In order for this compact and 
our tribes to be successful, they need additional resources and 
incentives on the Federal level to support them as they move 
along, and support the teachers and put resources in some of 
the other innovations, so everybody is not saying, well, you 
are just taking money away from me, and you are doing this. It 
all needs to be forward-looking and supportive.
    I offer you that map example as what we are trying to 
overcome with doing this.
    Senator Murkowski. And it is a good reminder, and well 
said.
    As we are focused on how we can do right by Alaska Native 
children here in this State, I am reminded as someone who has 
been on the Indian Affairs Committee since I came to the United 
States Senate, I am reminded that the Federal Government really 
has not done right by Native children across the Country. We 
see that in many of the assessments that we see about these 
gaps in learning.
    Sandy, you mentioned No Child Left Behind. While we didn't 
like NCLB, it really did manage to shine a very directed target 
on who we were failing. We were failing, we were failing, 
Native children. In fairness, within that system, within the 
BIE system, in my view we are still failing. Perhaps it is 
because we have not been able to get out of the format, the 
structure that has been in place.
    There is an effort to say, well, we just need to put more 
money towards it. But if the system is broken, if the system is 
not workable, putting more money towards a broken system isn't 
going to change it.
    So I listened to the level of optimism and the willingness 
to really bring about systemic change. I think that perhaps as 
we have done with compacting for health care and demonstrating 
to the rest of the Country how we can do it differently in 
Alaska and provide first level quality of care in a place where 
it is really hard to do, that perhaps we can be the model for 
how we educate our indigenous populations, and Alaska can once 
again lead. Because right now, we are doing a disservice to 
Native children.
    So Julie, I hear what you are saying about the resources. I 
am not naive to know that there are fights that go on about the 
allocation of monies. It happens to be within my Appropriations 
Subcommittee. So I know very, very well.
    But this should not be viewed as a threat to others' 
budgets. Hopefully, we can shape this so that it is viewed as, 
there is a new approach to finding solutions to what has been a 
failed system for our Native children.
    We have some work to do. You have given us some important 
suggestions. Know that this hearing record is going to be kept 
open for two weeks. So you may see Committee members that will 
be submitting follow-up questions for the record. We would ask 
that you continue with providing your insights there. Again, if 
there is anything you might wish to supplement for the record, 
know that we welcome that as well.
    These are important, important conversations. I am pleased 
to have been able to bring the conversation back to Alaska. We 
want to thank everybody who has been involved in organizing 
this field hearing. Thanks to the APU staff. I want to thank my 
staff, who have been very helpful and to the Committee staff as 
well.
    A recording of this hearing is going to be posted on the 
Committee's website, so that is out there. For those who have 
participated virtually, we thank you for that. For those who 
have traveled to get here, we wish you safe travels back home.
    With that, the meeting stands adjourned. Thank you, 
everyone.
    [Whereupon, at 4:10 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

                            A P P E N D I X

         Prepared Statement of the U.S. Department of Education
    Chair Schatz, Vice Chair Murkowski, distinguished Members of the 
Committee:
    Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony on the 
effort in Alaska to establish State-Tribal Education Compact Schools 
(STECs). The U.S. Department of Education (Department) applauds 
Governor Dunleavy, Commissioner Johnson, and Julie Kitka, President of 
the Alaska Federation of Natives, for their continued leadership to 
establish a framework for the first STEC to open in Alaska. As this 
initiative moves forward toward a pilot stage, the Department stands 
ready to provide support and technical assistance to help ensure that 
Tribal sovereignty and self-determination, paired with community 
ownership, are paramount in this effort, and that the establishment of 
STECs transform educational opportunities and outcomes for Alaska 
Native students across the state--from cities to regional hubs and the 
most rural and remote villages. Your collective commitment to high-
quality, transformative education will also benefit non-Native students 
and improve outcomes for all.
    As it relates to Federal funding, future STECs will be eligible to 
receive formula grants as a local educational agency (LEA) provided 
they meet the definition of an LEA in section 8101(30) of the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA). 
Essentially, STECs must be a public board of education or other public 
authority legally constituted within Alaska for administrative control 
or direction, or to perform a service function for, public elementary 
or secondary schools. The Alaska Department of Education and Early 
Development (DEED) is responsible for determining whether STECs meet 
this definition, not the Department, although we are able to assist 
with technical legal questions regarding the statutory definition. If 
STECs are LEAs and therefore receive formula funds, they would carry 
out educational programs consistent with the statutory and regulatory 
requirements of all Alaska LEAs. For discretionary grant funding, the 
authorizing statute and implementing regulations would dictate STECs 
eligibility. For instance, under the Alaska Native Education (ANE) 
program, eligibility criteria allow for Alaska Native Organizations 
(ANOs) to compete for discretionary grant funding, either independently 
or in partnership with an LEA.
    Lessons from the Alaska Native Organizations (ANOs) currently 
implementing new ANE projects funded through the American Rescue Plan 
(ARP) should also be central to the effort to establish STECs. The 
historical increase in ANE funding under the ARP in 2021 allowed ANOs 
to serve more Alaska Native students and communities. For example, as a 
result of ARP investments, Alaska Native students and communities are 
now benefitting from new high-quality early learning and enrichment 
programs. STECs have the potential to develop innovative and promising 
pathways for student success by building upon existing strategies from 
ANE programs while addressing community challenges with solutions that 
strengthen Tribal self-determination.
    The Department is a steadfast ally and advocate for Alaska Natives, 
Native Americans, and Native Education. The Biden-Harris Administration 
respects and values the nation-to-nation relationship that the federal 
government shares with Tribes, and we take our trust responsibilities--
including those in education--seriously. We applaud Alaska Native 
leaders and educators for designing innovative solutions rooted in 
Alaska Native values and cultures to strengthen education through 
STECs, working in partnership with your communities and the state. The 
Department seeks to improve educational opportunities and outcomes, 
from cradle to career, for all students. For Alaska, we recognize that 
locally driven solutions can be the most sustainable and transformative 
for student outcomes. Through STECs, Alaska Native students will have 
opportunities to: honor their cultures through incorporating Indigenous 
knowledge into educational programs; learn and speak their languages; 
engage with Alaska Native teachers, leaders and mentors; and receive an 
excellent education that prepares them for college, competitive 
careers, and contributing to their communities.
    Please do not hesitate to call on the Department for assistance 
with the STEC initiative and thank you for bringing attention to this 
historic opportunity to transform Alaska Native education. The 
Department learns every day from Native students and leaders how 
important community is for engaging in traditional cultural practices 
and fostering resilience in Alaska Native youth, leading to improved 
outcomes for students and communities.
                                 ______
                                 
       Prepared Statement of the Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC)
    Thank you for the opportunity to provide Cook Inlet Tribal 
Council's (CITC) testimony about transformative and innovative 
strategies for better educational outcomes for Alaska Native students. 
My name is Gloria O'Neill, and I serve as the CEO/President of CITC 
where we provide social services to the 40,000 Alaska Natives in the 
Anchorage area. This hearing is important because it allows us to share 
our youths' stories of successful educational achievement and the 
innovative approaches we use to educate our youth for today's (and 
tomorrow's) world.
    Research and experience across the Indian country has demonstrated 
that cooperation among tribes, tribal organizations as well as state 
and federal school systems and integration of community-specific 
culture and language programs into school curriculum is essential to 
the educational success of Native students. To accomplish this, CITC 
emphasizes the need for Native communities to have ownership of and 
responsibility for the education of their youth. While working in 
collaboration with regional, state, and federal entities, Native 
communities have the knowledge to effectively lead the development of 
innovative and culturally-informed school curricula that strengthen the 
educational outcomes of our youth.
    CITC dedicates significant investment in improving outcomes for 
Alaska Native Youth and carries this forward in our organization's 
vision: ``We envision a future in which all Our People--especially Our 
Youth, the stewards of our future--have access to vast opportunities, 
and have the ability, confidence, and courage to advance and achieve 
their goals, infused with an unshakeable belief in our endless 
potential.'' At CITC, educating our youth is an essential component of 
our commitment to our mission, which is to connect Alaska Native/
American Indian people to their endless potential. We accomplish this 
through an innovative approach to youth education, such as infusing 
cultural traditions into our FabLab Science, Technology, Engineering 
and Math (STEM) programming, developing a digital badging system, and 
by integrating after-school programs with classroom work in a cohesive 
wrap-around approach that address the whole student and family.
    In 2013 CITC, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology (MIT), installed a Fabrication Lab (Fab Lab) to support 
STEM-related education for Alaska Native students in Anchorage, Alaska. 
The Fab Lab houses 21st century technology, such as 3D printers, a 
laser cutter, sand blaster, vinyl cutter, molding equipment, and 
ShopBots that require proficiency with design software and 21st century 
STEM skills to bring ideas into the physical world. Over the past nine 
years, CITC has had great success using the Fab Lab to develop programs 
of cultural relevance to Alaska Native students. These programs 
establish high cultural relevance and low barriers to STEM 
participation through project-based learning activities that 
incorporate contemporary youth culture as well as traditional Alaska 
Native culture and STEM skills, because using the fab lab equipment 
requires the students to understand and use computer programming. 
Projects include: Dog Sled building; Eskimo Yo-Yo making; skateboard 
design, and application of traditional cultural motifs to T-shirts.
    Alaska Native students who participate in CITC Youth Empowerment 
Services (YES) programs graduate from high school at significantly 
higher rates than their nonparticipating Alaska Native peers. CITC has 
committed to a fabrication-based approach to science, technology, 
engineering, and math (STEM) intervention due to our initial successes. 
Including the Fab Lab as a core element of program design has enabled 
CITC to engage elementary and middle school youth in hands-on project-
based STEM learning, using state-of-the-art 21st Century technology, as 
well as supporting high school students' progress through the Anchorage 
School District (ASD) math and science curriculum. Currently, CITC 
operates five separate programs that incorporate Fab Lab activities to 
supplement ASD STEM instruction for Alaska Native students.
    In 2017, the Fab Lab logged 2,954 student contact hours, and CITC 
successfully adapted the Fab Lab service model for in-school use in a 
remote Alaska setting, installing a full Fab Lab at the high school in 
Utqiagvik, Alaska, North America's northernmost community. 
Additionally, CITC also piloted STEM Learning Labs, offering year-
round, fabrication-based STEM enrichment programs at multiple Anchorage 
schools and community venues used by Alaska Native families.
    In 2020, the CITC Board of Directors charged the organization to 
``Re-define education, based in culture and values, and co-designed 
with the community, with an openness to radical new learning models 
that leave four walls behind.'' Over thirty-five years of commitment to 
learning and education prepared CITC to move forward with its radical 
new learning models. We identified that ``education is not only a path 
to selfdetermination,'' but actually the path to self-determination. 
CITC's long-standing work to combine the benefits of traditional 
knowledge and innovation, create new career opportunities, and partner 
with national and local leaders has shown that there are ways to learn 
and grow outside conventional education pathways.
    With funding from the Department of Education Indian Demonstration 
Program and Alaska Native Education Program, in 2021 CITC implemented 
Fab Lab/STEM focused Innovation Stations that extend the original Fab 
Lab model to sites across Alaska by installing Fab Lab equipment 
packages scaled for in-school use in 17 urban, rural, and remote 
schools. Innovation Station addresses the persistent educational 
challenge presented by disparities between the academic preparation of 
Alaska Native/American Indian students and the rest of the population 
by (1) strengthening the integration of Native cultures and languages 
into school climate and classrooms and (2) promoting 21st century 
technology for Native education. Innovation Station's focus on STEM 
instruction, a key project component, builds on research findings 
confirming that academic achievement gaps persist in science 
achievement among ethnically diverse students; gaps can be observed in 
science course enrollments leading to careers in STEM fields and the 
effective promotion of racial and ethnic minority students' educational 
achievement in STEM is of critical importance.
    Innovation Stations also build on high quality research suggesting 
that culturally relevant STEM curricula can improve academic outcomes 
for Alaska Native/American Indian students. The table below indicates 
key programs that demonstrated positive results in evaluations.

         Table 4: CITC YES: Culturally Based Education Programs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                    Journey    Building
 Title     Fab Lab    Schoolyard    Transitions      Ahead    Our Future
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age      K-12        7-12          5-6 & 8-9      Middle      High
                                                   school      school
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type     field       Afterschool   In-school      In-school   School
          trip;                                    and after-  within a
          after-                                   school      school
          school;                                  intervent
          day camp,                                ions
          mobile
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Place    CITC;       CITC          Title 1        Title 1     High
          schools;                  schools        schools     diversity
          community                                            public
                                                               schools
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goals    Innovation  School        Support STEM   Support     Increase
          through     engagement;   skillbuildin   STEM,       number of
          21st        graduation/   g through      culture,    Alaska
          Century     GED           culturally     community   Native
          STEM +      attainment;   based          youth       students
          tradition   career STEM   science        projects,   in higher
          al Alaska   skills                       academic    level
          Native                                   skills      STEM
          culture &                                and         through
          values                                   S.E.L.      project
                                                               based
                                                               learning.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    What makes Innovation Station different from former CITC Fab Lab 
programs is that the program intervenes with students sooner, 
intervenes in-school, engages the full spectrum of elementary students, 
and provides professional development for classroom teachers. 
Innovation Station will leverage the considerable expertise of CITC's 
YES department s to (1) adapt for in-school use existing programs that 
provide culturally relevant out-of-school fabrication-based STEM-
enrichment to high need students, who are disproportionately Alaska 
Native, and (2) scale up existing programming to create a network of 
urban, rural, and remote Alaskan elementary schools with resources to 
implement Innovation Station instructional units.
    Annual professional development opportunities are a key project 
component, building on findings by school administrators that confirm 
improved academic outcomes after instituting a research-based, 
culturally relevant professional development program for teachers 
serving Native American students. Most teachers report personal 
background, informal study, or living in the community as the source of 
cultural knowledge relevant to Alaska Native/American Indian students 
rather than formal instruction; 71 percent of all Alaska Native/
American Indian 4th graders, and 75 percent of all 8th graders had 
teachers who reported attending no professional or community-based 
formal programs for assistance in developing culturally specific 
instructional practices to teach Alaska Native/American Indian students 
in the past two years. Only 11 percent of fourthgraders in low density 
public schools, and 26 percent in high density public schools, had 
teachers who reported attending 1 or 2 professional or community-based 
programs for help developing such practices in the past 2 years.
    Teachers from partner schools will be trained to use Innovation 
Station equipment, and to implement CITC field-tested activities 
through annual in-service events. In addition, CITC will train teachers 
in the process of using 21st century STEM skills to bridge maker 
culture, youth culture, and Alaska Native culture, so that teachers are 
able to adapt materials to reflect their own school's distinct 
linguistic and cultural heritages and specific curricular needs.
    While performance outcomes are still being evaluated, the ways 
rural schools in Alaska Native communities are using Innovation 
Stations are exceptionally creative and impactful. For example, the 
Tatitlek Community School is using their Fab Lab equipment to emphasize 
the preservation of the Sugt'stun language. Teachers have used Fab Lab 
equipment to label items in the school with Sugt'stun words; posted 
signs with numbers, shapes and colors in the Tatitlek Fab Lab; and, in 
partnerships with CITC Fab Lab staff, build wooden boxes engraved with 
Sugt'stun words and names, thus fully integrating language into the 
school environment. Similar language and culture activities are being 
explored and celebrated with Fab Lab equipment and tools in the 
communities of Nanwalek and Tyonek.
    CITC continues to invest in innovation and access to technology to 
prepare students to move to the next level. Using this approach, in 
FY21, CITC served 1,029 students through aligned educational services 
and was able to maintain its 97 percent graduation rate (in contrast to 
55 percent for AIAN district-wide) for the seniors participating in 
CITC classes. CITC's youth education program offered over 10,000 hours 
of student tutoring in CITC after-school programs and its Fab Lab and 
new micro labs supported students for another 10,480 hours. It is not 
enough to simply change the current education systems--we must also 
offer a variety of learning models that serve to nurture and identify 
the potential in each of our Alaska Native students.
Radical Learning Elements
    To that end, CITC has also implemented a micro-credentialing 
program that promotes job skills development, professional development 
skills, and Fab Lab safety training for all ages of youth. Digital 
badging is recognized across the world as a way to demonstrate 
accomplished skills, comprehension and expertise through quick, deep-
dive online tutorials and the ability to articulate the application of 
the topic(s). Unlike formal education credentialing, badges provide 
immediate feedback that a student has made the effort to grow their 
knowledge base and knows how to apply it. For CITC, the ability to 
provide badging and micro-credentialing creates access to educational 
opportunities our participants would not be able to receive in a 
college or job training school setting.
Holistic Wrap-Around Services
    CITC's full suite of services, which includes employment and 
training, child welfare, recovery support as well as education has 
created an environment in which the student's whole self and whole 
family can be engaged in and part of the solution. Using the Five 
Factors assessment tool, our participants define for themselves what 
success is, and the various departments within CITC support each and 
the student/family to remove barriers and achieve success on their 
terms. CITC's innovative Parents as Teachers tutoring program brought 
parents into the school, and other programs within CITC support and 
train both students and their families to achieve success, while 
holding close the relationships and cultural strengths of Alaska Native 
values that lead to self-determination.
Conclusion
    This combination of dedication to innovation and the transformative 
power of education integrated with culture and values in the three 
domains of classroom/after school, Fab Lab and digital badging have 
charted a path to preparing our students for the jobs of the future. We 
look forward to working with you to make transformation a reality.
                                 ______
                                 
  Prepared Statement of Morrie Lemen Jr., Executive Director, Inupiat 
                     Community of the Arctic Slope
    The Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (ICAS) supports efforts 
to develop a plan for tribal compacting. ICAS has the capacity to plan, 
implement and manage a Pre-k-12 tribal education school and educational 
system to provide tribal schools in all 8 village communities of the 
North Slope of Alaska. ICAS an IRA Tribe, has the governmental 
authority to establish and operate a fully functioning Tribal school 
system. However, ICAS does not have a tax base to support a robust 
education system. Given that the United States Government and the State 
of Alaska have the revenue generating sources to support tribes to 
provide education services to youth in their communities, and ICAS has 
the ability to provide high quality education in a manner that reflects 
the unique Inupiat culture and native ways of learning and knowing, we 
believe that a compacting agreement is beneficial to all parties.
    Throughout rural areas of Alaska, which are predominantly Alaska 
Native communities, our indigenous youth are performing well below 
state and national testing averages as evidenced by the required state 
test (PEAKS) for English/Language arts, and math. The chart 1 below 
shows the decline in academic performance (the percentages are far 
below proficiency measures) by North Slope students over the past 5 
years and graduation rates between 22-32 percent. The evidence clearly 
shows that our native youth are not being adequately served by the 
current public education system. The federally recognized tribes have a 
tribal constitutional responsibility and right to develop an education 
system that will support a high-quality education for its citizens.

                            Chart 1--Total=Total student population; AN=Alaska Native
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                         English
                                        Language   English
  Far below Proficient % North Slope      Arts    Language    Math     Math AN  Graduation  Spending Per Student
              Borough SD                  (ELA)     Arts      Total                Rate
                                          Total   (ELA) AN
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020/2021                                  70.39     76.73     56.52     62.49      73.27      $39,680.00-$5,000
2018/2019                                   64.1     72.47     39.81     45.52      76.99
2017/2018                                  61.92     68.94     35.47     40.08      68.15
2016/2017                                  55.71     63.75      28.4     32.84      78.38
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Defining what tribal education is, starts with stating what it is 
not. Tribal education is not:

        1. Adopting the current traditional system and delivering 
        educational services with tribal educators.

        2. Adding Native culture to the current curriculum

        3. Putting up indigenous pictures, symbols and words in the 
        classroom and calling it tribal education.

        4. Teaching the native language and culture as a second 
        language and sub-culture of the current American system.

    Creating an effective tribal education system is:

        1. Building a tribal system from the foundation up utilizing 
        the tribal language, culture and values.

        2. Creating teacher certification standards and requirements 
        based in the native language, culture, values and education 
        practices of the local tribe.

        3. Preparing youth to effectively work in both the broader 
        American society and the local indigenous communities.

        4. Building infrastructures and places to learn that align with 
        an indigenous education model that has been time-tested for 
        thousands of years.

        5. Schools that have teachers from their local communities who 
        are grounded in the local indigenous language, culture and 
        practices.

        6. Compacting, not contracting between federal and state/local 
        governments that respects the sovereignty of the tribes and 
        focuses on outcomes rather than process and operational 
        mandates.

Benefits of Tribal Education
    For thousands of years, Alaska natives were educating their youth 
to successfully live in one of the harshest environments on our planet. 
Through native education, tribes successfully established communities 
that were healthy and self-sufficient. The community focused practices 
ensured that all members of the community had food security, housing 
and organizational structure that supported healthy communities and 
lifestyles. Prior to colonization, and assimilation practices, there 
were not excessive dysfunctions and social ills. We now have the 
opportunity to return to our traditional ways that were successful and 
through education, guide our youth to become healthy, productive 
adults, able to determine their life trail that supports their families 
and communities.
    ICAS asks the United States to honor the various treaties and 
obligations to support tribal sovereignty in establishing and managing 
robust tribal education systems by providing funding and opening the 
door for Alaska Tribes to develop their own sources of perpetual 
revenue. Alaska tribes are not able to fully exercise their sovereign 
rights if other governmental entities are their only source ofrevenue. 
ICAS supports the concept of tribal compacting and can continue to do 
so to the extent that the tribe has the freedom to exercise its 
sovereign rights to the fullest extent.