The School Superintendent

Chicago public schools chief Arne Duncan goes before a Senate committee on Tuesday for a confirmation hearing. To help him set priorities, Post reporter Valerie Strauss asked folks in the education world to provide their best advice on key issues. Here is a response from Edgar B. Hatrick III, superintendent, Loudoun County Public Schools.

I would advise doing everything possible to focus the department and its available funds on meeting the federal government's obligations for funding for special education. I also hope that the new administration will focus on the needs of children who live in rural and urban poverty. I guess I'm suggesting that there be a return to the roots of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act at the federal level. The role of the federal government in public education is limited, and we cannot afford to continue to waste money and energies on the Department of Education's trying to police every public school system in America.