Sen. Murkowski pushes for release of $41.3M in delayed federal grants for Alaska Native education

“Last week, I raised this issue with Secretary McMahon, and I’m pleased she agreed to expedite the obligation of the funds for the Alaska Native Education Program grants that Congress appropriated earlier this year,” Sen. Murkowski wrote. 

The Alaska Native Education Program provides federal funding to “meet the unique education needs of Alaska Natives” and to support education programs to benefit Alaska Native people, according to the program website. 

Officials with the U.S. Department of Education’s grant office for the program did not give a reason for the delay or specify when the funds will be dispensed after a query on Friday. 

The grants are awarded to Tribes, tribal organizations and school districts with a majority of Alaska Native students to support a variety of initiatives across a three-year grant period. 

“Grants provide, for example, culturally relevant curriculum, tutoring and other academic supports, indigenous language revitalization, workforce development opportunities, teacher professional development, postsecondary planning and support, and success, early childhood education, and afterschool programming,” Murkowski said in the statement. 

“I will continue to champion this program and work with the Department to ensure this funding is administered more expeditiously going forward,” she said.

Grantees include several early learning and literacy programs. Millions are slated for Indigenous language, art, science, and medicine including $2.1 million for the Baby Raven Reads project by Sealaska Heritage Institute and $1.4 million for tutoring and college readiness programs through the Rural Indigenous Students College Readiness Alliance launched by the Bering Strait and Lower Kuskokwim School Districts, two of Alaska’s largest, rural districts.

Rosita Kaaháni Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Native non-profit corporation focused on Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, said her organization was one of the grantees that alerted Murkwoski’s office to the delay. Sealaska has not received its grant funds yet.

Worl said in an interview Friday that federal funds and support for Alaska Native communities is critical, given Alaska’s history of suppressing Native education and language. 

“So these programs have helped us overcome the effects of that kind of suppression,” she said. “Our data shows definitely that it promotes and enhances Native education, and we show that through all of our evaluations…it’s led to higher academic performance.”

She said SHI has seen success in early childhood programs like Baby Raven Reads project and initiatives to support students continuing education, which reduces drop out rates. “We’re still behind non-natives, but we’re gaining ground,” she said. 

Worl said the federal support helps Sealaska Heritage Institute provide annual funding for education across Southeast Alaska where state funding has fallen short. SHI provides $1 million each year to the Juneau School District and $2 million annually to the University of Alaska Southeast, as well as funding to support school districts across the region for teacher training, arts and language programs.

“It’s a program that has proven benefits,” she said. “There, there’s no doubt about it.”

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