Education Department releases $41.3 million in delayed Alaska Native education grants

Fifteen Alaska organizations will share $41.3 million in Alaska Native Education Program continuation awards, spread across 26 individual grants that had been expected July 1 and sat unreleased for roughly a month. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Education obligated the money, $41.3 million in total, and said the funding will fully support all 2024 and 2025 ANEP grantees.

The recipients run from Bering Strait School District to Ilisagvik College to the Native Village of Napakiak. Sealaska Heritage Institute holds seven of the 26 awards, totaling more than $16 million. Cook Inlet Tribal Council holds three. Northwest Arctic Borough School District, Goldbelt Heritage Foundation and Bristol Bay Foundation hold two apiece. Knik Tribe, Doyon Foundation, Lower Yukon School District, Hydaburg City School District, Alaska Native Heritage Center, EXCEL Alaska and Learning Point Alaska round out the list with one award each.

Grantees awarded in 2024 receive the third and final year of a three-year period. Grantees awarded in 2025 receive their second year. ANEP operates through multiyear discretionary continuation awards, so grantees depend on timely annual obligations to sustain programs. When the money is late, tribal organizations and school districts risk interruptions to staffing, budgets and services such as language revitalization, culturally based curricula and academic support.

Murkowski attributed the release to a direct conversation with Linda McMahon, the U.S. secretary of 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," Murkowski said. She said she will work with the department "to ensure this funding is administered more expeditiously going forward."

The announcement includes no statement from McMahon or the department explaining the delay or when grantees can draw on the obligated money.

ANEP is authorized under Section 6304 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and is administered by the Office of Indian Education. Grants fund culturally relevant curriculum, tutoring, Indigenous language revitalization, teacher training, early childhood education and afterschool programming. Alaska News previously covered a bipartisan bill led by Murkowski that would block relocating the Office of Indian Education.