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Trump Administration Wants Advice on Cutting Back Education Regulations

By Alyson Klein — June 21, 2017 1 min read
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Got ideas for the Trump administration on how to get rid of “burdensome” education guidance and regulations?

The U.S. Department of Education wants to hear from you.

The agency put a notice in the Federal Register Wednesday asking the education community to identify specific guidance and regulations that are driving up costs, or creating too much extra work for states, districts, and educators.

And the department wants the responses to be as specific as possible, including, if possible, actual citations to regulations and guidance. The administration wants to hear back in the next 60 days.

The feedback will be used to help the department deliver on a White House executive order to trim or toss unhelpful federal regulations, the notice says. And presumably, the answers could also inform the agency’s work—in response to yet another executive order from Trump—to restore local control to education by identifying regulations that step on district and state decision making.

The ask may come at an odd moment for the Trump administration. State advocates and officials are wondering whether U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos & Co. will deliver on her local-control rhetoric and pledge to reduce the federal footprint, given the extensive feedback on ESSA plans.

In fact, Chris Minnich, the executive director of Council of Chief State School Officers, said the department’s letters to states, especially Delaware, might go beyond the scope of the law. The department, though, has said states still need to give the feds sufficient information to show that they are complying with ESSA’s requirements, even with new flexibility. More on all that here.

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