Jorge Barrera-Rojas (Yale University – Law School) has posted Cooperative Federalism and Coordinated Rulemaking in American K-12 Education on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Amid renewed efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and resurgent litigation invoking the major questions and nondelegation doctrines, cooperative federalism in American K–12 governance remains contested terrain. The Every Student Succeeds Act promised coordination to balance federal standards with local autonomy. However, ESSA’s framework still pushes towards standardized, one-size-fits-all solutions that restrict genuine state discretion, as conditional funding mechanisms structurally enable excessive federal oversight “behind the scenes,” under a coordinated rulemaking process for approving state plans.
This Article addresses these gaps by diagnosing how ESSA’s coordinated rulemaking produces coercive convergence and de facto standardization of state accountability plans. It analyzes three structural reforms, consolidating categorical programs into poverty-based block grants with civil rights safeguards, replacing federal plan approval with written decisions from state-led expert panels, and enabling Congress-approved interstate compacts to support horizontal accountability. Drawing comparative insights from Germany, Switzerland, and the European Union, jurisdictions with strong federal traditions and decentralized educational governance, these proposals aim to recalibrate the federal state dynamic while preserving civil rights enforcement. The piece contributes to Spending Clause scholarship and federalism theory, ultimately offering a path to modernize coordinated rulemaking by promoting clear statutory limits, outcome-based equity, and authentic state autonomy in American K-12 education.