Rough Path Seen for Senate's ESEA Bill

Sen. Michael B. Enzi, R-Wyo., left, huddles with Sen. Lamar Alexander R-Tenn., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, right, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, during the Nov. 8 hearing on a Senate bill to make over the No Child Left Behind Act.

—Andrew Councill for Education Week

Split views emerge at Senate panel hearing

By Alyson Klein

The prospects for a bipartisan, comprehensive rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act moving through Congress this session remain cloudy, even after a hearing on a bill last week that was intended to serve as a prerequisite for sending it to the floor of the U.S. Senate.

During the Nov. 8 hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Republicans continued to express tepid support for the measure, while civil rights advocates typically aligned with Democrats lambasted the bill as a major step backward on student accountability.

For his part, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the committee chairman, made it clear that the measure approved by the committee Oct....