For My Daughter, For Our Tribal Nations: Native Futures Deserve Better Than This
Celebrating Native American Heritage Month and National Career Development Month through the lens of lived experience
As we’re nearing the end of both National Career Development Month and Native American Heritage Month, I continue to reflect on the critical importance of both November celebrations here in my home state of New Mexico and across our nation. Both carry deep significance for me, as a Native educator, as a mom of a Native kid, as a former leader in Native education and in college and career pathways, as the former leader of our nation’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) at the U.S. Department of Education, and now as the leader of All4Ed. At All4Ed, we are deeply committed to building equitable pathways for every student, including our Native students, that lead to economic security, connection, agency, and belonging. And the future of Native learners is our future, and our mission is their mission: a choice-filled life, grounded in culture, community, and opportunity.
The vast majority—nearly 93%—of our Native American and Alaska Native students attend our nation’s traditional public schools. And yet, when we look across their educational and career trajectories, we see persistent gaps in outcomes. These gaps are not about potential; we know that talent is universal, but opportunity is not. These gaps are about systemic issues of access, design, investment—and our collective responsibility.
Imagine a bright and engaged Native high school student who attends an urban public school with no Native teachers and little-to-no culturally responsive curricular alignment or activities. If anything, she may only see Native peoples represented in her school as wearing buckskin and feathers in erroneous illustrations and narratives about the mythology of the first Thanksgiving. Imagine what it means for her to graduate from high school—making her one of only 74% of Native students do so, compared to 87% of students overall—and then to decide to be one of the only 22% of Native students to go on to enroll in college, compared to 40% of students overall. In college, she struggles with the same cultural dislocation and misrepresentation of Native peoples, but she is brilliant and resilient, and she persists through it—becoming one of the only 36% of Native college students who graduate, compared to a 64% college graduation rate for all students. Doing the math, only six out of every one hundred Native high school students will go on to graduate from college. These are brutal odds—and they are immediate for our Native young people whose story is still being written.
These failures in our education systems have economic consequences. When we look at national data for un- and under-employment rates of Native workers, and for Native households below the poverty line, we find that they are over double what they are for our country overall. This is unacceptable. We need our Tribal Nations to thrive, and we need our Native brilliance to lead and shine in our workforce across the country. Our nation is strongest when we are all engaged in our economy and our communities.
Yet the federal government is withdrawing support for career development education of Native learners instead of strengthening it, and it continues to undermine the federal foundation of support for Native education nationwide.
In May, OCTAE abruptly withdrew a funding opportunity for the Native American Career and Technical Education Program (NACTEP) claiming a need to ensure alignment with Administration priorities and alignment across grant programs. NACTEP was designed to develop and expand career and technical education programs that are rooted in commitment to Tribal sovereignty and self-determination. These programs provided pathways to in-demand, good careers that are grounded in place, values, identities, and futures. They trained our Native students in fields such as health science, environmental science, computer coding, cybersecurity, construction trades, business management, and more. Students were supported with personalized advising, job placement, and wrap-around supports.
Last month, the Trump administration sought to terminate the majority of the career civil service team in the Office of Indian Education (OIE) through a reduction in force (RIF) sent out during the recent federal shutdown. Congress reversed these RIFs through a provision in the continuing resolution they passed to reopen and continue funding the federal government, but the future of this team is still uncertain given that this administration seeks to entirely dismantle the federal role in education and it may very well reinstate RIFs in the future. And this month, the U.S. Department of Education made public six interagency agreements moving the majority of K-12 and higher education work to other federal agencies—including transferring the funding and programming for the Office of Indian Education and other Native education initiatives to the U.S. Department of the Interior. These transfers are creating profound disruptions and challenges for federal workers and for our states, Tribes, and local grantees as they navigate uncertainty and confusion.
The decision to cancel funding for powerful programs like NACTEP and to destabilize and dismantle the federal infrastructure for Native education is step back from the promise of Native self-determination in education and workforce design, undermining our responsibility to nation-to-nation engagement with Tribes, and walking away from our nation’s legally binding, but seldom honored, treaty and trust obligations in education. These actions are deeply disappointing, troubling, and emblematic of what we should not be doing at this moment in time when our nation’s Native and non-Native families alike are struggling with educational outcomes on top of food security and economic shortfalls that impact decision-making about families’ basic needs. This is a cancellation of opportunity.
At All4Ed we believe that our nation’s public education and workforce systems must not simply serve Native learners and workers—they must partner with them.
We believe that state and local systems must engage in genuine government-to-government relationships with Tribes. We believe local school districts and colleges must ensure they are not merely “including” Native students—but instead are centering their voices, honoring their heritage, and designing pathways that lead to real success and community strength.
Because we are hopeful. Because we believe in Native brilliance. Because we believe that when Native students are supported, they do not simply catch up to where they could have been if they had the opportunities that all our young people deserve—they lead. They become health-care professionals in their own communities, environmental scientists stewarding land on ancestral territories, tradespeople building infrastructure on Tribal homelands and in our urban cities, entrepreneurs who channel cultural strengths into thriving enterprises, technology leaders who shape the future.
At All4Ed, our purpose has always been to ensure that every learner—especially those historically underserved—has access to meaningful pathways that lead to college, career, and thriving adulthood. For Native learners, that means more than access. It means alignment, design, cultural responsiveness, and self-determination. It means opening doors—and making sure those doors stay open and lead to multiple pathways to opportunity and improved outcomes.
So here is my call to action:
To states
If you are in a state with federally and/or state-recognized Tribes, engage in meaningful government-to-government relationships with Tribal Nations. Recognize Tribal sovereignty in education and workforce policy and work with any Tribal agencies in your state to advance their vision. Invest in Native-led education and pathways design, funding, and infrastructure. Do not wait for the federal system to act. Build relationships and trust, align systems, and ensure Tribal Nations are equal partners in state strategy.
If you are in one of the 16 states without any federally-recognized Tribes because of their forced removal in the 19th century, you still have Native learners and workers in your state! All states should be attentive to Native data and outcomes, recognizing that they may comprise a low percentage of learners and workers overall, but that their data still matters and must be considered and publicly shared. Work with Native organizations and local public systems in your state to explore whether and how Native learners and workers are captured in a “multiracial” category, and how to consider their data accordingly.
To local school districts, colleges, and workforce systems
Recognize that most Native learners in your communities attend your public schools, and they deserve exciting and excellent opportunities to fulfill their endless potential through education-to-career pathways. Our Native learners and workers are in your classes, in your places of employment, and throughout your communities. Center their needs, listen to them and their families. Look at your data and address any gaps through strategies that include the voices of those impacted. Hire Native educators and staff. Ensure that a Native student walking across the stage at graduation carries not just a diploma—but a clear roadmap to living a meaningful, rewarding life.
This month, as we honor Native American Heritage Month and celebrate Career Development Month, let us renew our commitment: to Native self-determination, to high-quality pathways rooted in community, to outcomes grounded in real choice. Because Native futures are being built—they are being shaped, defined, lived—and excellent Native education and workforce development lifts us all, and is excellent for us all.
Let us be partners in reimagining education and workforce systems and career development that serves our Native communities—and all of us—better. And at All4Ed, we don’t just reimagine choice-filled, joyful, purposeful lives; we build them—together.
Meet The Author
Amy Loyd
Chief Executive Officer
