9:57 a.m. - FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- An association of school administrators is suggesting that an elected state school board oversee elementary and secondary education, a proposal the state school superintendent calls "folly."

The board would hire a commissioner to oversee K-12 public education, under a proposal developed by the North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders. It would require a change in state law.

The goal is to give North Dakotans a better-run system, said Doug Johnson, the group's assistant executive director. The council represents superintendents, principals and school business managers.

Wayne Sanstead, the superintendent of the state Department of Public Instruction, said the proposed board would make state education posts more political.

"It's sure folly," Sanstead said of the proposal. "It's asking for more layers of government than we already have."

The administrators' association will not draft legislation for the plan, Johnson said, but it hopes legislators will consider the idea.

"We're initiating the discussion because we think it needs to be looked at," he said. "If somebody wanted to bring forward legislation, we'd support it."

The proposal would transfer power from Sanstead's office to an elected state board.

State school board members would be elected on a regional basis, similar to the state's seven judicial districts. Those members would then hire a commissioner.

It would operate much like local school boards, Johnson said.

The council estimated a cost of about $300,000 a year to hire a commissioner and operate a board.

The elected state school superintendent would handle board assignments, under the proposal.

Rae Ann Kelsch, R-Mandan, who chairs the House Education Committee, said the proposal stems from frustration with a "perceived lack of communication" over such issues as the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Twenty-one states have state school boards that appoint or hire an education commissioner, Johnson said.