Chiefs' Group Wants Congress To Know Value of State Role in Federal Programs

By Erik W. Robelen

Washington

State education leaders went to Capitol Hill last week to urge Congress to keep their agencies in the federal budget loop.

The effort comes as some districts and school administrators are calling for changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that would allow most funding under the law to go directly to school districts, circumventing state education departments.

Congress needs to know that the state agencies matter and that they use federal funding for worthwhile purposes, Nancy Keenan, Montana's superintendent of public instruction, told members of the Council of Chief State School Officers. She spoke hours before the officials made their way to the Capitol for meetings with...