Governor Hochul’s budget plan includes a huge funding increase for three state-owned schools on the native territory. The schools are Onondaga Nation School near Syracuse, the Tuscarora School near Buffalo and the Saint Regis Mohawk School in Akwesasne near Massena.
Schools on the native territory are owned by the state, not the local community like other public schools. Because of that funding for maintenance or improvements comes from the annual state budget.
Late last year, after Kathy Hochul became governor, the superintendents held a press conference and talked about the state’s failure to maintain the school buildings. They said it created an unequal learning environment for Native American children.
Stanley Harper spoke at that event. He’s the superintendent of the Salmon River school district which includes the Saint Regis Mohawk Elementary School.
"...by God, it's wrong. That we were never provided with the same resources to level the playing field for the students and to maintain these buildings," Harper said that day.
Governor Hochul’s budget plan includes $17.8 million for the Saint Regis school, more than double what it received in the last budget. On Tuesday, in response to the news, Harper said it's enough to make significant repairs and improvements.
"We want to do the capital improvements to improve the buildings to modernize them, to get them up to date, compared to all the other school buildings across the state," Harper said.
Harper, who is the only Native American school superintendent in the state, said the budget line is about more than just repairing buildings.
"This is a game-changer for our children, our staff, and our community. This means so much — you know what? - we're valued as Native people the same as any other type of people in New York state. That's what that tells our community and our staff and our children," Harper said.
Harper said he is optimistic that the legislature will approve the funding. He said it’s not the solution to all the funding problems for Native schools, but this is a good start.
"I think the state is correcting a societal ill now, so I'm happy," he said.
Harper said he will not stop advocating for the school. Next, he’d like the governor to make a policy change so the state-owned native schools will have more control over their budgets and not have to lobby every year.