K-12 Funding, Policy on Radar for New Congress

House members take their oath of office during the first session of the 112th Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 5. The Republican Party now controls the U.S. House of Representatives and bolstered its minority ranks in the Senate during the 2010 midterm elections.

—Charles Dharapak/AP

GOP Intent on Reining in Spending; Obama Maintains Education Agenda

By Alyson Klein

President Obama has a long list of K-12 items on the policy agenda for his next two years in office, but it remains to be seen how his priorities will jibe with those of the new, more conservative Congress that took office last week with many members intent on shrinking the federal government and squeezing spending.

Although renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—whose current version is the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001—is being touted as one area of potential common ground, the task is politically tricky for reasons that go beyond partisan divisions: There are deep disagreements within both parties over the best direction to take K-12 policy.

Meanwhile, the new Republican-controlled House could step up oversight of key Obama programs, including the $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, passed in 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,...