Urban Indian Listening and Learning Session May 9, 2011 Los Angeles, ca (ms word)

OVERVIEW AND UPDATE

MR. ROSE: Thank you all for taking the time to introduce yourselves. We very much appreciate the fact that you're here today, and we're here to listen and learn.

So, what I'd like to do for a few minutes here is provide some context for this Listening and Learning session, and then I would ask my colleagues, Kevin Jennings, Bill Mendoza and Michael Yudin to supplement those remarks. And then we'll get started with the program.

We're here because of the president's historic conference in November of 2009 in Washington in which over 400 of the 564 federally recognized tribes came to Washington. Their tribal leaders came to Washington to participate in this conference.

What flowed from that conference was a memorandum that the president issued to each agency directing those agencies to develop a plan of actions, and that plan of actions must be rooted in tribal consultations.

Before I go on any further, I forgot to introduce the court reporter. Beth has a tough job here today. Being a lawyer, I know that court reporting is a vital task, but it can, also, be a stressful task. It's important for us to identify ourselves when we speak, spell our last name and just speak clearly so that she can record it. The recording of these sessions is very important to us because we do keep a record. We have to keep a record, and we, eventually, prepare a report and recommendations to the White House, to Congress and to the cabinet secretaries on what we've heard. So Beth, thanks for being here. If you need a break, just let us know.

THE REPORTER: Great. Thank you.

MR. ROSE: Back to the memorandum that the president issued. He directed us to engage in a series of tribal consultations. Based on those tribal consultations, recommended to him as well as I mentioned the cabinet secretaries in Congress initiatives that we can take to address the concerns that we heard in our tribal consultations.

At the Department of Education, under Secretary Duncan's leadership, we have taken the president's memorandum extremely seriously. Last year we conducted a series of six formal tribal consultations around the United States from South Dakota to the state of Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska, and we developed a report. And that report will be released within the next month.

Those tribal consultations were all hosted by the tribes and, for the most part, were held on reservations. We also visited Oklahoma as well, and by necessity, those tribal consultations focused primarily on the plight of Native American youth in our rural areas with a few minor exceptions.

They also focused to a large extent on the challenges facing our Native American youth who attend the Bureau of Indian Education Schools. As you probably know, in the United States, roughly 7 to 8 percent of Native American youth attend BIE schools. The other 92 to 93 percent of our Native American youth attend regular public schools, whether those regular public schools are on reservations or urban and suburban communities.

I tell you that background because this year at the Department of Education, we decided we wanted to alter the course of our tribal consultations and focus on the unique challenges that are facing our Native American youth in urban and suburban settings.

Our consultations this year are set in urban and suburban settings around the United States. We held a consultation in Denver, Stockton, California, Green Bay, Wisconsin and now Los Angeles, and over the course of the summer and fall, we'll be going to a few other cities.

So what happens at these consultations, as I mentioned, we're here to listen and learn, but we also want to engage in a conversation with you. Is what we hear at these tribal consultations acted upon? The answer is yes. Last year we inserted in a number of our grant competitions for the first time in the Department of Education competitive priorities for tribes; and we also revamped our proposal on the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind to create a pilot program, which enhances the responsibilities of tribal education departments and their relationships with local school districts and states.

There are a number of other things we've done in response to what we heard in our tribal consultations that my colleagues will share with you as well, but these are very, very important initiatives for us. We do listen. We do learn, and we try to act upon what we hear in order to address the concerns that are expressed to us.

So with that background, I'll turn it to my colleagues so they can provide some supplemental comments. I, again, want to end here where I began by thanking each of you for taking the time to be with us. It's important. The secretary of education is personally involved in this project, and the senior team that is here today and engaged in this project is a team that works on a daily basis with the secretary and those in the White House. This is a priority initiative for our administration and for the secretary, Arnie Duncan personally. I'll let Kevin start.
MR. JENNINGS: I would simply like to add my thanks to what Charlie stated for you being here. We were kind of amazed that people would come down to LAX and talk to us, so thank you for braving the drive and the freeways. I urge you today to be completely honest and forthright.

As Charlie mentioned, this is the 11th such session we've had. We had a number of informal ones as well; for instance, the state-recognized tribes in North Carolina, with youth in Minnesota. I went to the Little Earth Housing Project, which I believe is the only Native American public housing project in the country, to talk with the kids themselves, and the franker people are in their conversations the more useful it is for us.

In the end, we work for you is I think what Charlie was implying. We will go back to Washington. We will fight for you. But, you have to tell us what fights to pick.

MR. MENDOZA: So my work is with the tribal colleges, universities and federal agencies and, also, the White House, and we were side by side with all of the ED officials here and others.

Increasingly, Indian Country is concerned about, the disconnect between the varying levels, whether it be early learning, K through 12, 13 through 16, so from a tribal college standpoint, we're looking at those proportions in ways that, you know, how can we create better connections with urban communities. What are the needs of urban communities? What are the resources of urban communities as well as tribal colleges and what they represent in terms of being -- having closer proximity to reservations.

I'm really interested in hearing about your struggles, your needs and some of the innovative ideas that you guys have about creating that connection, and so those are all part of these consultations. That's why our office wanted to be involved in these from day one, and then, also, going forward, how can we make this a consistent and continuous process that just is institutionalized. We can then better inform policy making at the highest levels.

I just wanted to share that and let you know what I hope to learn from you guys and love to be able to answer any questions or if you have any concerns, be able to search those out for you.

MR. YUDIN: Good morning again. Michael Yudin. I'd like to talk briefly about how to lay out a policy framework for your consideration as this day unfolds.

You know, I don't think anybody in this room would argue that the fact that our education system is not producing the kind of results that our kids deserve. Too many kids do not enter kindergarten where they learn. Too many do not graduate for high school. Those that do graduate, too many are not prepared for college and a career. Too many have to take remedial courses.

Millions of jobs in this country go unfilled even in this economy, due to a lack of skilled workers. So, you know, it's just shocking in this economy that there are jobs but not people to fill those jobs.

A generation ago, the United States led the world in college education. Today, we are ranked ninth. The president has said by 2020 he has called on us to lead the world in college education, so that's a big jump. By 2020, the United States will go from ninth to first. That's going to take a sea of change. We think this cradles a career strategy to do it.

I want to identify five levers that we think are the key levers moving forward. Access to high quality early learning systems is critical. We think supporting and promoting innovation and reform is absolutely an important way to move forward.

Our Race to the Top initiative, just as an example, we spent less than 1 percent of all annual education spending in this country on Race to the Top, and it generated more to change. We had governors, educators, and leaders and community leaders and labor leaders coming together to determine how we enact policies that will be innovate and reform education.

Thirty-six states changed their laws. Forty-five or six states adopted common college and career-ready standards as a result. So, we're really excited about that.

Investing in innovation, promised neighborhoods, which is looking at how communities can leverage resources all throughout the community to improve outcomes for kids from cradle to career continuum.

The third lever is teachers -- teachers and leaders. We need to ensure there is a great teacher in every classroom and a great leader in every school.

Fourth, college access. The Pell Grant is critical. We fought in the last budget cycle to assure we maintain the maximum amount of Pell Grants that are available. More than 9 million students will be able to maintain their Pell Grants. We are thrilled about that. We need to do more. We make sure that kids not only have access to college but succeed in college.

Too many kids have to take remedial courses. We know that a majority of kids that go into community college have to take, at least, one remedial course. The research shows the more remedial courses kids have to do take, the less likely they are to graduate, and that makes sense. You have to pay for courses. You have to use your Pell, or you have to use your student loans. And you don't get credit for those courses.

And the fifth lever is maintaining and supporting the foundation, which is making sure that educationally disadvantaged kids continue to get served. That's through the Title I program, IDEA (Individual with Disabilities Education Act), Title III, which is English Language Acquisition, Title VII which is the Indian education program, rural, neglected and delinquent homeless kids. Maintaining that foundation is absolutely critical.

Those are the five levers I just wanted to lay out for you all. I look forward to this conversation.

One more thing I wanted to add: Secretary Duncan addressed our NACIE (National Advisory Council on Indian Education) board, which is a presidentially appointed commission to advise the secretary on Native American education issues.

The secretary addressed the group just a couple weeks ago. His remarks to the counsel was, be bold. This is your opportunity. Be bold. Think big. Challenge us to do the right thing. So I'm going to convey that to you. Be bold. This is our opportunity. You are on the record. As Charlie mentioned, this report will be compiled and will be available on our Web site. This report goes directly into our policies. This has a direct impact on where we go from here, so be bold. And thank you.

MR. ROSE: Okay. Thank you, Kevin, Bill and Michael, for those remarks, and Paula Starr is going to be our moderator. I love your name.

MS. STARR: And Charlie Rose.

MR. ROSE: Sorry to disappoint everybody. It's a misrepresentation anyway, but Paula is going to moderate this session. Thank you.