JoVonne Wagner
ICT and Montana Free Press
HELENA, Mont. — Montana’s Native American tuition waiver is facing a revision that would expand the eligibility of the program so more people could qualify, according to a House Bill making its way through the Legislature.
However, some state and education administrators are concerned about the financial cost of the tuition waivers.
Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, Democrat, first introduced House Bill 288 in January, when the House Education Committee tabled it unanimously. The bill’s original intent was to open up the tuition waiver to any Montana resident who can prove tribal descendancy of any one of the 574 federally recognized tribes.
In his attempt to resurrect the bill, Windy Boy compromised and amended it to exclude descendants of tribes from outside Montana. Descendants of Montana tribes can still access the waiver. The amended version of his bill made it through committee and onto the House floor for further consideration.
Currently, the tuition waiver is available to Montana residents who are enrolled members of a federal- or state-recognized tribe, or to descendants who can document at least one-quarter of tribal blood quantum, which can be comprised of any number of recognized tribes. That means tribal students who claim descendancy with less than one-quarter tribal blood quantum, are ineligible for the tuition waiver, according to the current American Indian Undergrad Tuition Waiver application.
“This bill is huge, it will have good, positive impacts to tribal members, because it will delete the existing language of the one-quarter Indian blood and will open it up to descendents of a federally recognized tribe within the state of Montana,” Wind Boy wrote in an email to Montana Free Press and ICT.
If the revised tuition waiver makes it through the Legislature, it would change the language in the law to recognize American Indian students, tribal descendants would no longer be required to document one-quarter blood quantum to be eligible for the tuition waiver.
Tribes can determine their own enrollment policies, so there are no universal definitions for descendants. However, the Department of Interior generally defines a descendant as one who has “lineal descendancy from someone named on the tribe’s base roll or relationship to a tribal member who descended from someone named on the base roll.”
There were a few representatives who spoke during the House floor discussion on the tuition bill. Rep. Jane Gillette, Republican, said she had concerns after speaking with representatives from the Montana University System about the waiver. The waivers come at a cost to the schools, she said.
“Universities don’t receive any funds for these waivers,” she said. “It’s seen more as a liability and not an asset for the university because there is no money behind those waivers. Until there’s money behind those waivers to help encourage schools to actually accept our Native American friends into the academic organizations, I’m going to be a ‘No.’”
According to the bill’s fiscal analysis, if all in-state American Indian students were granted the waiver it would decrease tuition revenue by about $4.7 million for 2024.
The Deputy Commissioner for Government Relations & Public Affairs for the Montana University System, Helen Thigpen stated in an email that HB 288 would significantly affect the campuses, which would have to figure out how to cover the significant revenue loss.
“Increasing access for American Indian students remains a top priority for all MUS campuses,” Thigpen said. “But state-based funding would be needed to implement the waiver fully.”
Rep. Marilyn Marler, Democrat, who is a faculty member at the University of Montana in the biological sciences department, said working with Indigenous students is one of her favorite parts of the job.
“It is not true that the tribal students on waivers are not a benefit to the university community,” Marler said. “They provide a lot of benefit to every aspect of education at the University of Montana. I’ve learned a lot from my colleagues and from the Native American students.”
Michelle Guzman, the director of the American Indian Student Success Services at the University of Montana said the waivers help make higher learning accessible to a population that historically had no access.
“It’s really good. I think it helps our students a great deal because of the cost of college, people don’t really know or expect what it costs,” Guzman said. “You know, the difference between you having your tuition and then you have all your fees, your room, your boards, your books, and it really adds up and so the tuition waiver really helps a lot so students are able to help them better afford college.”
The American Indian tuition waiver came about as an adopted policy to promote and encourage access to higher education for American Indians within the state, according to the Montana University System website. In the 2019-2020 school year, 832 Native students accessed the tuition waiver.
A common misconception about the tuition waiver is that the waivers pay for the entirety of the students college expenses including fees, books, meals, room and boarding. The waiver only applies to the students’ tuition, as noted on the MUS webpage.
“Nothing is free here and for applicant students who apply for college, they have to go through the whole stringent application process like every other student has to go through. They have to fill out their FAFSA and all these other applications and this is basically the last resort on that line,” Windy Boy said in his closing statement on the floor.
Windy Boy’s bill is now re-referred to the House Appropriations committee for further debate and vote after the transmittal break.
This story is co-published by Montana Free Press and ICT, a news partnership that covers the Montana American Indian Caucus during the state’s 2023 legislative session. Funding is provided in part by the Headwaters Foundation.