[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 131 (Wednesday, September 7, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5388-S5389]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. UDALL of New Mexico (for himself and Mrs. Gillibrand):
  S. 1519. A bill to strengthen Indian education, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Indian Affairs.
  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the 
issue of tribal education; an issue of great importance to Indian 
Country, but one that does not receive the attention it should from the 
rest of the nation.
  Native students' academic outcomes show the worst achievement gaps in 
the country. Graduation rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives 
are lower than the graduation rates for all other racial and ethnic 
groups. American Indian and Alaska Native students have a lower average 
score in reading than other students. Sadly there's been little 
improvement to these statistics over the past 80 years.
  I hear often from many of the tribal school districts in my State, 
and the issues they face in providing quality education to their 
students are numerous. Aging infrastructure badly in need of 
renovation. Difficulties in recruiting trained, Native teachers and 
administrators. Chronic underfunding and late payments of Impact Aid. 
The failure of No Child Left Behind requirements to address tribal 
needs and learning styles especially related to language and culture. 
All are impediments to the goal of improving educational outcomes of 
Native American youth.
  To try and help address these issues, I rise today to introduce the 
Building upon the Unique Indian Learned and Development, or BUILD, Act. 
This legislation is an important step towards improving the conditions 
and teaching for Native American students.
  In general, our Nation's schools are aging and in a state of 
disrepair. But this is especially true of BIE schools, where over half 
of the almost 4,500 education buildings are over 30 years old, and more 
than 20 percent are more than 50 years old. It is reprehensible that 
any child is being subjected to learning conditions that are literally 
a danger to them. Although education construction has improved 
dramatically over the last few years, the deferred maintenance backlog 
is still estimated to be over $500 million and increasing annually. How 
can we expect our students to succeed academically when we fail to 
provide them with a proper environment to achieve success?
  That is why the BUILD Act includes a School Facility Innovation 
Contest, which would allow students and faculty who learn and work in 
these old school buildings, as well as engineering and architecture 
students and faculty nationwide to propose creative ways to improve 
tribal school facilities through a national competition. It is time for 
bold, new ideas to renovate or replace these old facilities, and 
there's no one better to contribute than those who use the buildings 
most often, and some of the brightest architectural and engineering 
minds in the country.
  In addition to infrastructure needs, a major concern is the 
achievement gap of Native American students. So many of them are not 
reaching their academic potential. These students need to be inspired 
and shown the possibilities in their future. One way to do so is to 
expose them to successful members of their own communities and cultural 
backgrounds. These kids must have role models, mentors, and teachers, 
from their community and culture. Unfortunately, today, while American 
Indians are 11 percent of the student population, less than 3 percent 
of their teachers, counselors or principals are also Native American.
  New Mexico has already developed some programs to increase the 
pipeline for Native American teachers and leaders, both in its tribal 
colleges and non-tribal colleges. These local programs are models for 
what can be expanded in New Mexico and nationwide. We need many more 
programs growing local leaders to meet the needs of the tribal schools.
  For example, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute offers an 
Early Childhood Associate Degree program, which works closely with the 
surrounding tribal communities to meet the Office of Head Start 
standards for certified Early Childhood educators in their classrooms.
  New Mexico State University offers an American Indian Education 
Doctoral Program in its College of Education, where the majority of 
students stay to work in NM.
  The University of New Mexico offers an Institute for American Indian 
Education to encourage upper-level Native American undergraduates to 
consider teaching, and helps paraprofessionals from tribal communities 
receive their teaching certification. In addition, it offers Native 
Language teachers professional development and training for language 
revitalization and immersion style teaching.
  At the Zuni Pueblo's ``Grow your Own'' program, started in 1980, 
tribal members attend Saturday school to produce Zuni-certified 
teachers, meeting the state's alternative certification.
  Research tells us that with incentives, we can increase the number of 
effective Native teachers and leaders in public and tribal schools. And 
all of these programs are a great example of it.

[[Page S5389]]

  But more must be done, which is why the BUILD Act seeks to provide 
these incentives and expand the pipeline for Native American students 
to become teachers, principals and administrators. Strong classroom 
teachers and school leadership must be developed, not left to chance.
  In addition to Native American students learning from Native American 
teachers and mentors, learning in their own language and culture has 
been shown to improve academic outcomes. Schools can succeed when they 
promote and maintainan overall educational climate that values and 
respects Native language and culture, and make the curriculum relevant 
to Native students' lives. Native American children who are proficient 
in their native language have higher proficiency in English and lower 
dropout rates.
  My bill would strengthen language and culturally based education by 
allowing tribal leaders and elders to teach Native language in schools. 
School districts in New Mexico are piloting programs like these.
  For example, the Mescalero Apache Schools developed a Native Language 
K-12 Curriculum aligned to New Mexico State Standards where tribal 
members are teaching in the school system.
  The Central Consolidated School District is the first public school 
in the State to implement a language Immersion Program/Model in Navajo 
language.
  The Pueblo of Jemez has created an Education Collaborative by 
coordinating effort between Tribal, Public, Charter and Bureau school 
educators and administrators to align curriculum and transitions from 
one school to the next, while supporting and honoring the Jemez 
language, culture and traditions.
  Also related to this, the BUILD Act reauthorizes the Esther Martinez 
Act for native language immersion programs, and allows standards, 
assessments, and teaching strategies to accommodate diverse culture and 
language learning needs.
  Last but not least, the BUILD Act calls for both full and forward 
funding of Impact Aid. Forward funding so that tribal school 
administrators will know before the school year begins what resources 
they have for salaries, for maintenance and utilities, and for 
supplies. Full funding so that school districts receive the funds they 
need to provide a quality education to all children.
  For many of these local school districts responsible for educating 
children connected to federal land, Impact Aid represents the basic 
funding that supports their schools. Yet, Impact Aid appropriations 
have not matched the loss in property taxes that these communities 
would otherwise have been able to use to support their local schools. 
Impact Aid construction and facilities funds have been redirected to 
basic support, resulting in school buildings deteriorating and in such 
poor condition that no parent could expect their child to learn in 
them. Years of not fully funding Impact Aid has resulted in Indian 
Treaty Land school districts with insufficient resources to meet 
Average Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind, including the 
difficulties to retain highly qualified teachers and purchase adequate 
computer equipment to educate its children, and an inability to 
renovate existing facilities and maintain adequate transportation 
fleets.
  In developing the BUILD Act, I worked closely with many tribes, 
Indian Educators, and Indian institutes of higher education and am 
happy to have the support from many of them. Southwestern Indian 
Polytechnic Institute, Institute of American Indian Arts, Navajo 
Technical College, the NM Indian Education Advisory Council, the 
National Indian Education Association, American Indian Higher Education 
Consortium, and National Association of Federally Impacted Schools have 
all endorsed the BUILD Act. I would like to thank them for their 
support and collaboration.
  I would also like to thank Senator Akaka, my chairman on the Indian 
Affairs Committee, with whom I worked to include many of these 
provisions in the Native CLASS Act, which he introduced this past June. 
The Native CLASS Act is important legislation that will improve the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act by including provisions to 
strengthen tribal control of education for Native American students 
through relationships between tribes and local education agencies and 
greater parental involvement with school districts; by providing 
alternatives to detention programs for at-risk Indian children; and by 
providing for alternative licensure and other incentives to increase 
the number of skilled native language teachers.
  I look forward to working with Senator Akaka and the rest of my 
colleagues to ensure that the provisions and ideas in the BUILD Act and 
Native CLASS Act are reflected in any ESEA Reauthorization legislation. 
Native American children are the future of their communities and our 
nation. They deserve equal access to resources, teachers, and safe 
schools. Unfortunately, to date, they have not been getting this. It is 
long past time for us to do something about it.

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