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The U.S. Department of Education is expected to award $41.3 million in grant funding through the Alaska Native Education Program to 26 Alaska grantees after some delay, according to an announcement from Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
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The grant funding was expected on July 1, but has been delayed more than a month. Grantees alerted Murkowski’s office they had not yet received the funding, prompting Murkowski to press the U.S. Sec. of Education Linda McMahon to release the awarded funding, according to the statement on Aug. 5.
“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,” Sen. Murkowski wrote.
The Alaska Native Education Program provides federal funding to “meet the unique education needs of Alaska Natives” and to support education programs to benefit Alaska Native people, according to the program website.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Education’s grant office for the program did not give a reason for the delay or specify when the funds will be dispensed after a query on Friday.
The grants are awarded to Tribes, tribal organizations and school districts with a majority of Alaska Native students to support a variety of initiatives across a three-year grant period.
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“Grants provide, for example, culturally relevant curriculum, tutoring and other academic supports, indigenous language revitalization, workforce development opportunities, teacher professional development, postsecondary planning and support, and success, early childhood education, and afterschool programming,” Murkowski said in the statement.
“I will continue to champion this program and work with the Department to ensure this funding is administered more expeditiously going forward,” she said.
Grantees include several early learning and literacy programs. Millions are slated for Indigenous language, art, science, and medicine including $2.1 million for the Baby Raven Reads project by Sealaska Heritage Institute and $1.4 million for tutoring and college readiness programs through the Rural Indigenous Students College Readiness Alliance launched by the Bering Strait and Lower Kuskokwim School Districts, two of Alaska’s largest, rural districts.
Rosita Kaaháni Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Native non-profit corporation focused on Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, said her organization was one of the grantees that alerted Murkwoski’s office to the delay. Sealaska has not received its grant funds yet.
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