Salazar revives tuition bill for American Indians

A bill to allow Native Americans with historical ties to Colorado to receive in-state tuition passed the House Education committee by a 6-5 majority vote on Jan. 26.

This is the second time the bill has been introduced by Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton. Last year, the bill passed the House and its committees but failed in the Senate.

Native Americans who belong to one of Colorado’s 48 federally recognized historic tribes would benefit from Salazar’s bill.

As it stands, American Indian high school students can only receive in-state tuition in the state they currently live in rather than the state that their tribes once called home before being relocated and placed on reservations.

The bill highlights statistics on American Indian high school students. In 2011, fewer than 42 percent of Native American high school students chose to attend college, which is below the national average of 57 percent of all students.

“This bill will empower many American Indian students wanting to attend state public colleges and universities,” said Darius Lee Smith, representative from the Colorado Indian Education Foundation, a Denver based nonprofit that offers scholarships to American Indian students. “This bill will also assist many of our public higher education institutions to achieve and increase enrollment of American Indian students.”

Fewer than 1 percent of students attending the state’s public colleges and universities, like the University of Colorado and Colorado State University, are American Indian, Smith said.

“Colorado is falling behind when it comes to recruiting, and retaining and graduating American Indian students,” said Deborah Esquibel Hunt, director of American Indian Services at the University of Colorado Denver. “We have a record in Colorado and a reputation that is not good for support of American Indian students.”

The vote to pass the bill was anything but bipartisan with Democrats supporting it and Republicans opposing it.

Rep. Paul Lundeen R-Monument, said he voted against the bill because it doesn’t include American Indian tribes that have yet to be recognized by the federal government.

“Why are we choosing to draw the line here, why not extend it further?” Lundeen said. “There are other groups that are certainty pre-territorial in their relationship with Colorado that may have come and gone from the state and they are yet excluded from the opportunity of in-state tuition.”

The bill had trouble last year based on the appropriations the bill requires, which have been reduced this time around, Salazar said.

“I’m hoping that there won’t be a challenge of the appropriation,” he said. “I am a little shocked, however, that Republicans, unlike last year where they passed it out of committee bipartisanly, … have now apparently locked down … it didn’t garner not one vote from Republicans and that is kind of disappointing.”

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