New research by Jonathan Butcher shows that, on average, federal money pays for 41 percent of the salary expenditures at state education departments in the 34 states for which comprehensive data are available—but federal requirements are disproportionate to the federal contribution. A recent Center on Education Policy at George Washington University survey of state department of education officials found that respondents in 23 states said their agency “had a heavier workload under ESSA than under NCLB,” which challenges the notion that ESSA has fewer federal regulations than previous iterations of the federal K–12 law. To learn more about the federal government’s impact on SEAs, read “Who Signs Your Paycheck?” on the EdNext blog.

—Education Next