Tribal education trust fund sponsor settles dispute on bill, passes it on House floor

A bill to create a trust fund for tribal education in New Mexico is back on track, more or less.

The state House on Thursday unanimously approved House Bill 134, a measure to create a multimillion-dollar trust fund aimed at building the education capacity for Native American students throughout the state, to include bolstering Native language programs and developing culturally relevant curricula.

“It’s a recognition by the House of Representatives, both Republican and Democrat, that they can appreciate when tribes want to take their education into their own hands and provide funding for that end,” sponsor Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, told the Journal.

Getting HB 134 across the halfway point took going back to the drawing board more than once.

Originally, the measure would have created a task force charged with determining how to distribute funds from the trust fund, one made up of three Navajo Nation representatives and one representative each from the Mescalero Apache Tribe, Jicarilla Apache Nation and from the southern, northern and western pueblos.

But that task force drew criticism from Navajo Nation leaders, who argued it wasn’t equitable in its representation of their students and that HB 134’s sponsors did not consult with the Nation in creating it.

And despite a significant House Education Committee amendment that aimed to establish more equitable representation on the task force, Navajo Nation leaders still had concerns with the bill, and spoke in opposition against it during a House Appropriations and Finance Committee meeting days later.

“There was no either formal or … informal tribal consultation or communication with Navajo Nation leadership,” Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty told the Journal on Thursday.

“We didn’t agree to how (the task force) was being organized or the lack of representation that we would have on that task force in comparison to the amount of students we represent in the state of New Mexico,” she added.

But on Thursday, Lente introduced a floor amendment, walking back significant sections of the changes made by committees and cutting the task force, instead handing trust fund distribution responsibilities to the state Public Education Department.

Tribal leaders would still be responsible for creating the formula to determine funding amounts. The PED’s role, Lente said, would be administrative and facilitative.

The floor amendment, he said, was the result of several days of discussions with tribal education stakeholders, and the Navajo Nation on Wednesday wrote a letter supporting the floor amendment.

Even with everyone back on board, Lente and Crotty said there are still some things left to be done on the bill.

Namely, both hope for more money — the current draft of the state budget bill contains a $50 million appropriation for the trust fund, despite an initial goal of securing $100 million for the trust fund.

Lente said he still aims to secure the second half of that goal, but acknowledged that “nothing is ever guaranteed” in the Roundhouse.

Last session, Lente pulled back on the bill because he felt $50 million wasn’t enough and because there was less political backing to even make that a certainty. This year, though, he said, “We’re going to work with what we have,” noting there’s plenty of time to come back and appropriate more to the trust fund.

HB 134 now moves to the Senate with less than a week to go in the session. But with kinks in the bill worked out and support from tribal nations, Lente said he’s confident the bill will reach the finish line.

“When there’s a will, there’s a way,” he said.