Margaret O’Hara
The Santa Fe New Mexican
SANTA CLARA PUEBLO — When Porter Swentzell took over as executive director of Kha’p’o Community School in July 2022, 53 percent of the positions were vacant.
At the time, the school, which serves about 90 students in prekindergarten through sixth grade, was operating without more than half of the teachers, administrators and support staff it needed, Swentzell said.
“It was very, very serious,” he said of the staffing crisis. “I would say it was existential: Do we have enough people to run things? To actually open the school up?”
Kha’p’o Community School, governed by a board selected by the Santa Clara Pueblo Tribal Council, has since increased its staffing levels — it now operates with just one or two unfilled positions, Swentzell said. But its struggles reflect those of many tribally-run schools, where staff members don’t always receive the same perks as those employed at schools for Indigenous youth operated by the federal Bureau of Indian Education.
A bill before Congress, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., seeks to change the hiring landscape. The proposed Parity for Tribal Educators Act, which has secured support from Republican lawmakers from Oklahoma and South Dakota, as well as nationwide Indigenous education advocacy organizations, would offer educators at all tribal schools the same benefits.
“We want to make sure that they’re on a level playing field when it comes to being able to recruit educators,” Vasquez said in an interview.
The proposed legislation is a step in the right direction, said Swentzell, a member of Santa Clara Pueblo.
He argued, however, further investment in tribal schools is needed to bolster hiring efforts and student achievement.
The Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988 allowed Indigenous tribes in the U.S. to administer their own schools. The law recognized Indigenous communities are best equipped to steward education services in ways that maintain their cultural and linguistic heritage.
Schools operated by tribes receive funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs but aren’t managed by a federal agency.
In Northern New Mexico, tribally-controlled schools are common, with Santa Fe Indian School, Ohkay Owingeh Community School and Kha’p’o Community School all operating under the direction of Pueblo officials, according to the Bureau of Indian Education’s school directory.
The idea for the Parity for Tribal Educators Act, Vasquez said, came from his constituents at To’Hajiilee Community School and the Ramah Navajo School Board’s Pine Hill Schools, tribally-run schools in Western New Mexico.
“One of the things that they brought up that would help them with the recruitment process for educators in those very remote areas is being able to offer the same benefits and, in particular, retirement benefits” as Bureau of Indian Education schools, Vasquez said.
The proposed legislation would offer educators at all tribal schools access to pensions through the Federal Employees Retirement System and the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan.
The bill also would require the Bureau of Indian Affairs to pick up the tab for government contributions to employees’ retirement plans.
Vasquez said the change would help tribally-controlled schools compete with public schools in New Mexico, where teacher salaries have increased significantly since 2022 following heavy investments from the state Legislature.
For the most part, the state Public Education Department has little oversight of tribally-run schools, with a few exceptions to ensure teachers are licensed with the state and curricula aligned with state standards, Swentzell said. But tribal schools aren’t required to adhere to state-mandated pay increases for teachers.
“We’re faced, then, with a conundrum: Do we just leave our compensation as it is? Or do we not? Do we catch up with the state?” Swetzell said.
Kha’p’o Community School chose to do the latter, increasing teacher pay to match state rates, he added.
The chronic underfunding of the Bureau of Indian Education has been the subject of congressional testimony and government reports for more than two decades.
In 2018, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a report finding the U.S. government had neglected its treaty, legal and constitutional obligations by inadequately funding services for Native American tribes, including education. The report recommended Congress pass a spending package to fully address unmet needs on tribal lands, stating, “The United States expects all nations to live up to their treaty obligations; it should live up to its own.”
Though budget documents show the Bureau of Indian Education’s allocation has steadily increased since 2020, some argue the problem of chronic underfunding persists.
In written testimony before Congress in March, Tesia Zientek, president of the National Indian Education Association, requested additional spending for Bureau of Indian Education-funded programs and facilities to address “the most pressing deferred maintenance issues” at the schools.
In an August resolution, the Kha’p’o Community School governing board called inadequately funding the Bureau of Indian Education “an abnegation” of the federal government’s commitment to educating Native youth.
The school is in need of maintenance. In some areas, the guts of the building’s ceiling are exposed.
Swentzell noted the school’s dual language program — offering students a mix of English and Tewa instruction — is funded by grants, not the federal government.
“We need a lot more funding to remain competitive,” he said, “or else we’re going to run into a wall.”
This article was published via AP Storyshare.