Richard Riley on Federal and State Roles in Education
Billions of dollars in federal education aid is flowing to the states, propping up budgets, saving jobs and programs, and creating powerful incentives for governors and legislatures to adopt new school policies. Now that it's campaign season, candidates for state office across the country are taking very different positions on the wisdom and necessity of that spending. As I explained in a recent story, some contenders—mostly conservatives—have described those federal efforts as wasteful and intrusive, while others—mostly Democrats—cast them as perfectly proper.
One of the people I interviewed for my story is an authority on both state and federal education policy: Richard W. Riley, who served as Secretary of Education under Bill Clinton, and as a two-term Democratic governor of South Carolina.
Riley, who now works as a senior partner at a law firm in Greenville, S.C., says he hears concerns these days