Federal File

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and the National School Boards Association usually find little common ground when it comes to education policy. But the Mississippi Republican and NSBA members tried to forge a conversation last week when the group invited the senator to be a keynote speaker at its annual federal-relations conference in Washington.

Sen. Lott tried to woo the crowd of 650 with stories of his family members who were teachers, his education in public schools and universities, and his days playing the tuba in...