The leaders of the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress say they will make college affordability their top education policy priority, while also working to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, a goal they share with President Bush.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the presumptive next speaker of the House, said last week that Democrats will honor their campaign promise to curtail the costs of higher education by lowering student-loan interest rates and by expanding tax deductions for college tuition...

Meanwhile, President Bush cited the No Child Left Behind law as the kind of bipartisan issue he and Democrats could work together on once the current minority party takes formal control of the two chambers in January. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who most likely will become the chairman of the House education committee, said in an interview that he would like to have NCLB hearings soon after the 110th Congress convenes.

Yet education policy experts and former congressional aides predict the new Congress will struggle to accomplish both the Democrats’ higher education agenda and the politically difficult task of reauthorizing the NCLB law, which covers most federal K-12 programs.

“It will be an uphill battle, given the logistical demands of the transition and the political demands of the Democratic leadership agenda, which will focus on higher education first and foremost,” said Michael Dannenberg, the education policy director for the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. Mr. Dannenberg worked for Democrats on the Senate education committee when Congress approved the almost 5-year-old education law by large majorities.

The prospects for the reauthorization might also be determined by a group of at least 40 incoming freshman Democrats, many of whom ran campaigns in which they criticized the law that President Bush made one of his top priorities when he took office in 2001. The legislation, which revamped the now four-decade-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act, requires schools and districts to meet annual student-achievement targets, among other mandates...

One thing the law has going for it, said Mr. Dannenberg of the New America Foundation, is a core group of powerful lawmakers and Bush administration officials squarely behind it.

“I wouldn’t put anything past the political skills of Senator Kennedy, Representative Miller, Secretary [of Education Margaret] Spellings, and the President,” Mr. Dannenberg said. “They are among the best in Washington at the art of closing a deal.”

For the complete article, please visit the Education Week website.