Hearings on Alito Are Likely to Play Down Education

Questions on abortion, presidential powers seen as hot topics.

Education-related issues are expected to take a back seat to questions about abortion rights and presidential powers during the possibly lengthy grilling of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. by the Senate Judiciary Committee that was set to begin this week.

“The sexy issues for the media are going to be the abortion issue, not really the education piece,” said Francisco Negrón, the general counsel of the National School Boards Association, in Alexandria, Va.

Confirmation hearings for Judge Alito, which were to begin Jan. 9, may run longer and hotter than those for John G. Roberts Jr., which lasted 10 days in September, followed by the Senate’s 78-22 vote to confirm him as the U.S. chief...