The Indiana Department of Education is seeking a waiver from a federal law allowing it to relax restrictions on how it spends millions from the U.S. Department of Education.

State education officials filed the waiver Monday, asking for flexibility from specific requirements of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Congress passed the measure in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.”

Red states like Indiana, Iowa and Oklahoma are seeking waivers with Indiana saying it would empower innovation through flexibility.

Indiana officials say the waiver would give the DOE greater flexibility in its use of federal ESEA funding and ease administrative burdens on Indiana schools.

It mirrors President Trump’s vision for returning education funding and policies to

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