Senators Signal Priorities for Renewal of ESEA

As Congress gears up for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act , questions from key lawmakers last week at the first hearing on the subject by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee gave a sense of their priorities.

For instance, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who served as U.S. secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, extolled the benefits of teacher pay-for-performance programs—and prodded one of the nation’s top teachers’ union officials on the topic.

Sen. Alexander asked Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National Education Association , whether he supported the Teacher Incentive Fund , or TIF, a $400 million federal program that awards grants to districts...