The author reports on a long-stalled, bipartisan rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act approved by the Senate education committee which 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 does not pull back enough on the federal role in education. But supporters of the bill, including its leading architect U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, 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. The measure overhauling the ESEA, whose current version is the No Child Left Behind law, is the product of months of negotiations between Mr. Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Sen. Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, the top Republican on the committee.