Carissa Moffat Miller, Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), says state education chiefs continue to press the U.S. Department of Education about the rollout of interagency agreements (IAAs) and their impact on state education responsibilities.

Miller, who has led the chiefs group for eight years, surveyed the current Washington, D.C., landscape in a conversation with Ray Hart, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, at the Council’s recent Legislative/Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.

Over the last year, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has used IAAs to outsource responsibility for entire programs from her department to other agencies. Some of the transitions “didn't go very smoothly for some states,” Miller said.

“In some states it worked out okay, but there were still lags of funding. ...  So we've raised the flag because we're super concerned about it, particularly as the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education inter-agency agreements start to be rolled out.” 

Over the past year, at least $12 billion in previously awarded federal education funds have been disrupted or discontinued through administrative actions, according to a recent Education Week analysis.

Hart endorsed the work of Miller and her group. “Obviously, things that are going on here in D.C., not only impact our districts but impact our states as well. And so that relationship between our districts and our states is important to us,” Hart commented.

Miller also called attention to a relatively new CCSSO initiative called the States Leading Network, comprising eight states: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Texas.

The first step is to evaluate the states’ education systems, asking the question, "How could you actually streamline and be more efficient and be clear about what your priorities are?” said Miller.

“The second piece is doing a federal funds audit for each one of the states,” she said. “How are you actually distributing your money? What are you saying to your districts? Are you giving them mixed information about grant A versus grant B? And how are you streamlining your priorities?”

The network focuses on increasing student literacy and math outcomes, reviewing federal funding challenges and opportunities, and building multi-year plans to stay on course amid shifts in federal policy and funding. 

To the point of shifting federal policy, Miller said this: 

“I think we get really distracted by will the Department of Education exist or not? And I think, look, if the funding is there, and we're able to continue to get the funding in a consistent way, maybe we don't spend so much time worrying about whether it's here [in the Department of Education] or whether it's there.

“… We spend an inordinate amount of time [dealing with that but] that can be spent on something else. And I think that's the thing, keeping legislators focused. This is what state leaders have to do, keep legislators focused: What are we going to do in our state? And what do we have control over?”