Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, a senior member of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, announced his support as a cosponsor of the “The State and Local Funding Flexibility Act,” which was introduced Thursday.

The State and Local Funding Flexibility Act is an overhaul bill aimed at providing states and local school districts maximum flexibility in how federal education funding is used.

“The State and Local Funding Flexibility Act empowers states and local communities to direct funds in a targeted manner, allowing them to align funding to areas of greatest need rather than having ‘big-brother’ dictating where every dollar should be spent.  Every state, school, and classroom is different and should be handled differently.  It has been proven times over that our national education system works best when choice and flexibility are granted to local administrators, teachers, and parents as well.

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“The Funding Flexibility Act will breathe new life into schools and classrooms by allowing a redirection of funds to areas of weakness or adjusted to specific needs, therefore helping eliminate additional waste.  Funding can be pulled from specified programs to be used for things such as school improvement grants, aid for the disadvantaged, reading first, math and science partnerships, innovation programs, and rural and low-income programs.

“This has been a proven model of success in many of America’s rural school districts and is scalable to address the needs of communities across the country with an end goal of improving the quality and results of our education system overall with a more student-need focus.”

NOTE (Compliments of the House Education and Workforce Committee): Under current law, the federal government operates a host of elementary and secondary education programs, each with their own set of strict and complex rules mandating exactly how funds may be spent by local school districts. This process of funneling funding through separate streams severely limits states’ and school districts’ ability to apply federal funds to the local education priorities and initiatives that best serve the unique needs of their students. The State and Local Funding Flexibility Act will allow states and school districts maximum flexibility in the use of federal education funds, thus supporting more opportunities to fulfill local education priorities