Senate Education Panel Approves ESEA Overhaul

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, attends the markup on Oct. 20.

—Andrew Councill for Education Week

Measure to overhaul law still faces political hurdles

By Alyson Klein

A long-stalled, bipartisan rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act approved by the Senate education committee last week faces steep political hurdles, including opposition from civil rights and business leaders who see it as a step back on student and school accountability and from Republican lawmakers who say it doesn’t pull back enough on the federal role in education.

But supporters of the bill, including its leading architect U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the committee, still hope to bring a revised Elementary and Secondary Education Act to the Senate floor for a vote in time to put the kibosh on the Obama administration’s plan to offer states waivers of key parts of the current law.

Sen. Harkin said after the committee’s 15-7 vote Oct. 20 that it was “possible” Congress could approve a rewritten version of the nation’s main K-12 education law before Christmas—and before the waivers, under the plan announced last month,...