White House Expected to Mount Fresh ESEA Effort

House Speaker John A. Boehner, left, and Rep. George Miller, shown with a Flat Stacie doll, part of a children's activity project, will be key players in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

—Susan Walsh/AP

Fresh Effort Expected From White House

By Alyson Klein

A prominent and sustained White House push for renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—which is widely expected to be part of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address next week—is viewed as crucial to prospects for the 9-year-old law’s reauthorization by a now-divided Congress.

The law’s current version, the No Child Left Behind Act, was President George W. Bush’s signature domestic achievement when it was passed in late 2001 with big, bipartisan majorities. Now it is considered outdated by practitioners and policymakers from all parts of the political spectrum.

Last March, the Obama administration released a blueprint for overhauling the ESEA, and even proposed $1 billion extra for K-12 education if Congress approved the proposal. But while lawmakers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate met regularly last year to discuss a renewal, neither chamber...