The Colorado State House in Denver, where this year the legislature passed a bill that extends ... [+]
The state of Colorado is providing Native American students from out of state the opportunity to attend any of its public universities and colleges at the institution’s in-state tuition rate.
Senate Bill 29, signed into law this summer by Gov. Jared Polis, states that beginning with the 2021-22 academic year, Colorado’s public institutions of higher education shall adopt policies to offer in-state tuition to students who would not otherwise qualify for it if the student is a federally recognized member of a federally recognized American Indian tribe with historical ties to Colorado, as designated by the Colorado Commission of Indian affairs in partnership with History Colorado.
According to The Colorado Sun, approximately 200 out-of-state Native American students who are enrolled in Colorado’s state colleges and universities will be the first beneficiaries of this policy as it kicks in this semester. Each one will have their annual tuition reduced by about $15,000, as will newly enrolled students who meet the criteria.
The bill, which passed with bipartisan support in both chambers of the Colorado General Assembly, further indicates that eligible students may also apply for Colorado Opportunity Fund aid (a legislatively established stipend that pays $94 in tuition per credit hour) in addition to other state-funded and private financial assistance.
According to the law, the benefit applies to any student who is a member of one of 48 American Indian tribes for which Colorado was the ancestral home. Because many individuals in these tribes were forced to move from Colorado, the new law seeks to rectify one adverse consequence of that history by providing them with resident tuition.
The bill exempts Fort Lewis College, a liberal arts college in Durango, because it already offers free tuition to any Native American student. According to the college’s website, approximately 41% of its students are Native American or Alaska Native, representing 177 nations, tribes, and villages. In 2019, Fort Lewis College accounted for more than half the Native American students enrolled in all Colorado colleges.
In addition, for about a decade, Colorado State University (CSU) has offered a Native American Legacy Award, by which non-resident tuition is reduced to the in-state rate for citizens of state or federally recognized tribes or descendants of tribally enrolled citizens. Under the new law, CSU’s Native American students will now also be eligible for support from the Colorado Opportunity Fund.
According to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute, as of 2020, only 19% of Native Americans ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in college, compared with 41% of the overall U.S. population. In addition, 41% of first-time Native American college students graduated within six years of starting college in 2012 compared with 62% for all students.
Only 14.5% of the American Indian and Alaska Native population, which totals about 6.7 million in the U.S., have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher compared with 31.3% of the overall population, according to the Census Bureau.
In Colorado, the numbers tell a similar story. In 2019, 2,356 Native American students were enrolled in 2- and 4-year colleges, down substantially from the 3,013 enrolled in 2010. At the state’s flagship - the University of Colorado, Boulder, - about 1.5% of undergraduates are Native American. Additional data from the Colorado Department of Higher Eduction (CDHE) reveals that Native American students represented only .89% of the state’s total college population in 2019.
Encouraging and supporting more Native Americans to pursue and complete college has been the goal of national organizations such as the American Indian Graduate Center and the American Indian College Fund, both of which focus on providing financial aid and other support services to Native Americans. And now, with its new law, Colorado joins a few other states, such as Iowa, that already offer in-state tuition rates or tuition waivers to Native Americans from tribes with ties to those states.
