Business Roundtable is urging Congress to reauthorize a key K-12 education law as soon as possible, but efforts to do that may be on hold at the moment because of a leadership vacuum in the U.S. House of Representatives.

At issue is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, legislation first approved in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty." The act authorized federal funding for public education. The name of the law was changed to the No Child Left Behind Act when it was reauthorized under President George W. Bush in 2001. Policymakers have proposed changing the name back to ESEA because of the controversy surrounding the former title.

Congress was supposed to have reauthorized ESEA in 2007, but instead lawmakers have extended the law through a series of short-term provisions, according to the National School Boards Association. This year-to-year uncertainty has drawn criticism from business community, which believes a strong education system is needed to train the future workforce.

"As employers, our members know that a prepared workforce powers economic growth and leads to individual prosperity," BRT President John Engler wrote in an Oct. 13 open letter to Congress. "Preparedness starts with a solid educational foundation."

However, BRT and other businesses groups are pushing for strong school accountability measures such as standardized testing, which is opposed by teachers unions and other education advocates.

"States that fail to meet the requirement that they use state tests to assess 95 percent of their students annually should not be eligible to receive federal funding, including those states that allow parents to opt their children out of annual testing," he wrote. http://bit.ly/1RKumjv

Right now ESEA appears to be heading nowhere. The publication Education Week noted the departure of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has left the fate of many bills up in the air. Boehner has indicated he may try to pass some legislation before he leaves at the end of October, but no one knows whether ESEA will be part of that. http://bit.ly/1Rd7VTo

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