More on Education feeding at the federal trough

I posted a blog yesterday that discusses how the federal government buys its way into control of state education programs with surprisingly small amounts of money compared to the total education spending from state taxpayers. Here is a bit more on this elusive subject.

I was just pointed to a comment found in US Congressman Scott Garrett’s web site about how federal money might not be really helpful to the states. Here is what the congressman says under his discussion of the Learn Act:

“As the elementary and secondary education system exists today, states receive money from the federal government for education through the Department of Education. Not surprisingly, most of this money is lost in administrative costs and bureaucratic redundancy. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), 41 percent of the financial support and staffing of state education agencies is a byproduct of federal regulations and mandates. In other words, the federal government is the root cause of 41 percent of the administrative burden at the state level despite providing just 7 percent of overall education funding.”

Right now, some of my correspondents are searching for that GAO study, which might shed more light on the particular situation in Kentucky.

If more information surfaces, I’ll let you know.

I did find a recent report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, “Ten Thousand Commandments, An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State, 2015 Edition,” which shows on Page 10 that the annual costs of regulations from the US Department of Education were estimated at $11 Billion.

But there are other federal regulations school must comply with, such as agriculture department regulations that impact food service and IRS regulations that cover salary operations, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute lists those costs under other areas besides the Department of Education. So, I don’t have a good handle on the total federal regulatory costs for school systems. Again, people are searching for that, and I’ll let you know if more data surfaces.