{"id":16905,"date":"2021-10-15T19:35:40","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T23:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=16905"},"modified":"2021-10-15T19:35:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T23:35:40","slug":"aaron-payment-biden-administration-updates-indian-education-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/10\/15\/aaron-payment-biden-administration-updates-indian-education-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Payment: Biden administration updates Indian education initiative"},"content":{"rendered":" <a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/08\/04\/aaron-payment-investing-in-infrastructure-in-indian-country\/aaronpayment-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14613\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" data-attachment-id=\"14613\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/08\/04\/aaron-payment-investing-in-infrastructure-in-indian-country\/aaronpayment-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/04\/aaronpayment-scaled.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1920\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Aaron Payment\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Aaron Payment. Photo by &lt;A href=&quot;https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kevin_Abourezk&quot;&gt;Kevin Abourezk&lt;\/A&gt; &lt;A href=&quot;https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kevin_Abourezk&quot;&gt;&lt;I aria-hidden=true class=&quot;fab fa-twitter&quot;&gt;&lt;\/I&gt;&lt;\/A&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/04\/aaronpayment-1024x768.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/04\/aaronpayment-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Aaron Payment\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14613\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\"> Aaron Payment serves as Chairperson of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a tribal nation based in Michigan. He also serves as Secretary of the National Congress of American Indians. Photo by <A href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kevin_Abourezk\">Kevin Abourezk<\/A> <A href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kevin_Abourezk\"><I aria-hidden=true class=\"fab fa-twitter\"><\/I><\/A><\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Executive Order on the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Native Americans&#8230;is HUGE!<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Friday, October 15, 2021<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"byline\">By Aaron Payment<\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nSAULT STE. MARIE TRIBE RESERVATION, Michigan  &#8212; This past week was significant with the first Presidential\r\nProclamation establishing <a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/10\/08\/president-biden-issues-first-ever-proclamation-for-indigenous-peoples-day\/\">Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day<\/a> on Monday, October 11, 2021.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThis news unfortunately eclipsed another major policy announcement by President Joe Biden in the form of an\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/presidential-actions\/2021\/10\/11\/executive-order-on-the-white-house-initiative-on-advancing-educational-equity-excellence-and-economic-opportunity-for-native-americans-and-strengthening-tribal-colleges-and-universities\/\">Executive Order on Indian Education<\/a> which is framed as follows:\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=mx-4>\r\n<em>It is the policy of my Administration to advance equity, excellence, and justice in\r\nour Nation\u2019s education system and to further Tribal self-governance, including by\r\nsupporting activities that expand educational opportunities and improve\r\neducational outcomes for all Native American students<\/em>.\r\n<\/div>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nAs a policy-wonk, I recognize that EOs are a big deal; not just an expression of values, but in a\r\nrecommitment to Indian Education and a detailed substantive plan. Key to the sustainability is\r\nPresident Biden\u2019s commitment to engaging Indian Country like never before through\r\nConsultation to guide strategic planning and implementation. \r\n<P><\/P>\r\nThe following illustrates this:\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=mx-4>\r\n<em>Sec 2 (b) The Initiative shall consult and collaborate with Tribal Nations; Alaska\r\nNative Entities; TCUs; and State, Tribal, and local educational departments and\r\nagencies to advance educational equity, excellence, and economic opportunity for\r\nNative Americans by focusing on the following policy goals\u2026<\/em>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe placement of this initiative in the US Department of Education is appropriate given 93% of\r\nAmerican Indian K-12 aged students attend public schools while 7% attend Bureau of Indian\r\nEducation funded schools under the US Department of Interior. As such, President Biden\r\nestablished that the, \u201cSecretary of Education, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of\r\nLabor shall serve as Co-Chairs\u201d of White House Initiative to oversee these efforts.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAs a Member of the National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE), I recognize the\r\nrespectful commitment to engaging in direct Consultation with tribes but also with advisory\r\ninput and collaboration from American Indian Education professionals who serve on NACIE\r\nthrough the following:\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=mx-4>\r\n<em>[NACIE] shall serve as the advisory council for the Initiative and shall report to\r\nthe Initiative, through and as requested by the Executive Director<\/em>.\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p><\/p><div class=\"mt-1 mb-1\"><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8411603009680747\" data-ad-slot=\"6394965691\"><\/ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/div><p><\/p>\r\nThere is much work to do to improve the Native American high school graduation rate (the worst\r\nof all racial ethnic groups) improvement in academic assessment scores, preparedness for college\r\nor vocal training, and increase entry into higher education as Native American students\r\nexperienced the greatest decline in undergraduate enrollment in higher education from 2020 to\r\n2021. With Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland\u2019s focus on reconciliation from past Federal Indian\r\nBoarding School Assimilation Policy, an additional need to infuse accurate and age appropriate\r\nAmerican Indian History and contributions across curricula, is emphasized.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAs a high school dropout at 15 from a low-income rural reservation slum, who went on to earn a\r\ndoctorate in education, I recognize no one does it alone and that given the right opportunity,\r\neveryone can succeed. I am grateful for President Biden\u2019s recognition of Tribal Nations as\r\nhaving a unique Constitutionally established treaty and trust obligation to an Education and for\r\nmaking such a clear policy statement in this EO to fulfill this right.\r\n<P><\/P>\r\n<HR><EM>A high school dropout at 15, Chairperson Aaron Payment, earned a GED at 16 and now holds a doctorate in education, and masters\u2019\r\ndegrees in education specialist, education administration, and public administration. He serves as the Secretary of the National Congress\r\nof American Indians, in a Presidential Appointment on the National Advisory Council on Indian Education and served in a Presidential\r\nAppointment on the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act Negotiated Rule Making Team. Dr. Payment is a former University Faculty who\r\ntaught Political Science and Native American Studies and coordinated Native student retention at three universities in Michigan.<\/em><HR>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This past week was significant with the first presidential proclamation for Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day but the news unfortunately eclipsed another major policy announcement from President Joe Biden.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,9,14],"tags":[590,117,52,418,88,118,1388,603,53,2066,591,165,102],"class_list":["post-16905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-opinion","category-politics","tag-aaron-payment","tag-bia","tag-bie","tag-boarding-schools","tag-deb-haaland","tag-doi","tag-ed","tag-indigenous-peoples-day","tag-joe-biden","tag-nacie","tag-soo-tribe","tag-tribal-colleges","tag-youth","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/04\/aaronpayment-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-4oF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}