Return to federalism?

The National School Boards Association, meeting in Washington this week, today published a press release along with draft legislation calling for a return to a federalist model of educational policy:

The proposed legislation would ensure that the Department of Education’s actions are consistent with the specific intent of federal law and are educationally, operationally, and financially supportable at the local level. This would also establish several procedural steps that the Department of Education would need to take prior to initiating regulations, rules, grant requirements, guidance documents, and other regulatory materials.

The draft legislation is here. It reads in part:

 As the focus of the federal government in education has grown, the vital national interest in local self‐governance of local educational agencies has been weakened through federal agency regulation, grant conditions, guidance materials and other requirements that are either unnecessary to achieve the specific direction of legislation enacted by the United States Congress, or that impose unnecessary limits on the flexibility that local educational agencies need in order to meet local, state, and federal goals in education

More on Duncan before the NSBA conference here.