Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 4, 1 April 2013 — NATIVE EDUCATION IN THE FEDERAL CLIMATE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NATIVE EDUCATION IN THE FEDERAL CLIMATE

By Lisa Watkins-Victorino, Miehelle Balutski and Wendy Roylo Hee Adelegation of four Native Hawaiian Education Couneil representatives attended the National Indian Education Association Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C., Feb. 25 to 27. In our group were: Miehelle Balutski, chair; Kamuela Chun, secretary; Lisa Watkins-Vic-torino, treasurer; and Wendy Roylo Hee, executive director. The NIEA Legislative Summit brings together Native Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians to discuss education policies andlaws that affect them and to advocate to Congress. KEY LEGISLATION Under the Native Hawaiian Education Act, an average of $34 million is available annually for grants to innovative education programs in Hawai'i. It has been used to fund programs from early childhood education, such as Keiki Steps and Tūtū and Me Traveling Preschool, to college scholarships including Liko A'e. Since the Native Hawaiian Education Act is contained in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title VII, our eouneil advocated for the reauthorization of the entire ESEA. The Democratic-controlled Senate supports the reauthorization of the entire ESEA while the Republicancontrolled House supports only

sections, not including Title VII. If ESEA passes without Title VII, Native Hawaiians will lose valuable education programs along with Native Indians and Alaska Natives, who also have programs within the title. In the meantime, since Congress cannot agree on the reauthorization of ESEA, the Native Hawaiian Education Act has been surviving simply by being funded in the continuing resolutions that Congress has been able to pass. Last year, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee developed another legislative strategy to authorize these programs. It passed the Native CLASS Act - or Culture, Language and Access for Success in Schools Act - whieh would authorize education programs for American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians without being a part of ESEA. Although the Native CLASS Act did not pass, it will be reintroduced and is one of the key legislations that we supported and discussed when visiting congressional offices. In addition, in response to an NIEA request for feedback, our eouneil provided recommendations to specifically include Native Hawaiians, where appropriate, in various parts of the Native CLASS Act where we have been overlooked. Another important pieee of legislation is the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation SEE NHEG ON PAGE 33

Native Hawaiian Education Council delegates and other education advocates met with U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, third from right, in February. From left are: NHEC's Lisa Watkins-Victorino and Miehelle Balutski, Walter Kahumoku III of the Nahonal lndian Education Association, NHEC's Kamuela Chun and Wendy Roylo Hee, and Malia Davidson, statewide project director of the Liko A'e Native Hawaiian Leadership Program. - Courtesy: Office ofU.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard

Act of 2006, the only federal program dedicated to the revitalization and restoration of Native American languages, including Hawaiian. This Act expired last year, and even though a simple reauthorization bill was introduced, whieh merely changed the date of the bill's authorization, it did not pass. FISCAL ISSUES In general, legislators and/or their aides assured their commitment to Title VII and the NHEA. Our Hawai'i congressional delegates would fight any attempt to cut Title VII or "zero out" the Act without any funding; however, because of sequestration, eongressional staff believed that all programs would possibly suffer some reduction. At the program level in the U.S. Department of Education, staff was willing to propose measures that would minimize

the impact of sequestration on programs that receive NHEA grants. The ultimate decision, however, is dependent upon the final budget and appropriations that Congress and the president approve, whieh, at the time of this writing, is still to be detennined. What is certain is that Congress did not meet the deadline to balanee tax increases and/or program reductions to avoid sequestration, whieh started March 1 and calls for cuts across the board. In a related matter, all federal operations are currently funded via a Continuing Resolution that was to expire March 27. Congress would have to eome up with some kind of measure by then to keep the federal government funded and operating for the rest of the fiscal year, whieh ends Sept. 30. That funding measure combined with mandatory sequestration will determine how mueh eaeh department will have to cut through Sept. 30. What happens next fiscal year is anybody's guess.

POLITICAL CLIMATE After the Legislative Summit, we visited with congressional offices. Mostly we met with senior legislative assistants andpolicy advisors. On rare but pleasant occasions we met with the elected officials. We met with people fromboth sides of the aisle in the Senate and House, and found they were supportive of the NHEA and were willing to take to their senator or representative a letter we had drafted to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan asking that Native Hawaiian education programs be preserved. We were cautioned that it was very difficult to get almost anything passed with such a divided Congress and informal arrangements, such as the Haskell rule, whieh prevents any bill from passing unless the majority of the majority party approves. It is our hope that an atmosphere of bipartisanship prevails so that Congress is more productive in adopting bills that support Native education. ■

NHEC Continued from page 23