State Sen. Owen Hill of Colorado Springs is keeping important company these day. The Senate Education chairman is working with former Reagan Education Secretary Bill Bennett on a local-control policy called Conservative Leaders for Education.

He joined Bennett on a conference call this week to talk about the four R’s-readin’, ‘ritin’, ‘rithmetic and Republicanism. The aim is to balance out or beat the National Education Association union’s sway over how states and school districts implement the Every Student Succeeds Act President Obama signed into law a year ago.

Bennett formed the organization in July and in October announced five allies: Hill, Alabama State Board of Education Member Mary Scott Hunter, Ohio state Sen. Peggy Lehner, Wisconsin state Sen. Luther Olsen and Nevada state Assemblywoman Melissa Woodbury, all Republicans. Each, except Hunter, leads a legislative education committee.

CL4E, as it’s called, has four main principles: local control,  parental choice, accountability and “quality content.” A breakdown of those principles is available on the CL4E website.

“We have an opening with the new laws to take power back from the federal government and give greater freedom to parents, teachers and students,” Hill told my colleague Peter Marcus in a text last week. “Sec. Bennett approached me and I am honored to join him in this organization to help provide our states the tools and resources that give more local control and accountability to our public schools.”

On his website, Bennett interviewed Hill in November.