I don't disagree with Frank's concerns about SEAs and their historic and general posture toward change in how education is delivered. It's not quite fair to paint all SEAs as he has, however. It's not helpful or fair to paint them all with such a broad brush. More importantly, however, I wanted to point out that neither the House nor Senate bills does anything to change the current role of SEAs in administering the federal grant program. Since the program was first authorized in 1994, SEAs have been the conduit for grant funds from the feds and to schools.
Nothing changes that in the current bills.
In the most recent round of grants, for example, individual schools in New Mexico and Hawaii were awarded grants since, I believe, neither state submitted an application.