WASHINGTON — The Bush administration formalized its plan to sell more than 300,000 acres of national forest to help pay for rural schools in 41 states, submitting legislation to Congress on Thursday to funnel $800 million to the schools over the next five years.

The schools would get $320 million next year, but the figure would drop sharply after that, to just $40 million in its final year, officials said. That would be a 90 percent decrease from current spending — a figure Western lawmakers called unacceptable.

The legislation came as four former Forest Service chiefs ry of agency practice.

"Selling off public lands to fund other programs, no matter how worthwhile those programs, is a slippery slope," the retired chiefs said, calling the land sale "an unwise precedent."

The letter was signed by Max Peterson, Dale Robertson, Jack Ward Thomas and Michael Dombeck, who headed the Forest Service from 1979 to 2001.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, said he welcomes advice from the former chiefs, but said they must be "suffering from selective memory loss."

Contrary to their letter, the Forest Service has proposed — and Congress has enacted — dozens of land conveyance bills, Rey said.

"It's not a precedent of any sort, one way or another," Rey said, noting that the proposed sales total less than half of 1 percent of the 193 million-acre national forest system. Parcels to be sold are isolated, expensive to manage or no longer meet forest system needs, he said.