Our guest blogger is Theodora Chang, Education Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

The arrival of Easter marks the end of the Senate’s window of opportunity to meet its first Elementary and Secondary Education Act (known as No Child Left Behind) reauthorization deadline. Despite early enthusiastic statements on reauthorization as a top priority of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the Committee’s actions to meet this first deadline have fallen short.

Senate HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) also set an ambitious target for completing a reauthorization that is more than three years behind schedule:

My goal is to have a bill ready for the president’s signature by late summer. Of course we have no control over the House, but I am hopeful that they will move expeditiously also in that regard.

There is still time for Congress to roll up its sleeves to meet President Obama’s goal of reauthorizing the nation’s main education law before school starts in the fall, but the clock is ticking. The federal government has a very important role to play on key issues like fiscal equity, accountability, teacher and principal quality, and school turnarounds, especially for students in states that are not taking aggressive measures to close the achievement gap.

Meanwhile, energetic reform efforts are underway in several states. Illinois, for example, just moved legislation through its State Senate that addresses the most contentious issues in education — seniority, tenure, dismissal, strikes, and longer school days. If passed in the House, the new law would streamline the current 27-step dismissal process and end the “last in, first out” policy of firing newest teachers first. Tenure would be based on performance, and teachers who earn excellent ratings during their first three years can actually earn tenure faster than they can now.

Congressional lethargy is taking a toll on states, schools, and students. New information released today shows that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan granted 315 waivers to ESEA requirements in 2009 — more than a nine-fold increase over the number of waivers issued by his predecessors. The waivers signal states’ need for flexibility under the current system, which Congress has been slow to reform. Even New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) is showing more enthusiasm for reform than our Senators are — which is all the more reason for the Senate HELP Committee to pick up its game and get reauthorization moving again.

Our guest blogger is Theodora Chang, Education Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Yesterday, President Obama called on Congress to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Left Behind, before the start of the next school year. “I want every child in this country to head back to school in the fall knowing that their education is America’s priority. Let’s seize this education moment. Let’s fix No Child Left Behind.”

However, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN) ignored the President’s sense of urgency, saying:

We need to take the time to get this right — we cannot allow an arbitrary timeline to undermine quality reforms that encourage innovation, flexibility, and parental involvement.

The start of the school year is far from an “arbitrary timeline.” Districts and schools plan several months ahead for the next school year, so failure to reauthorize the law will have very real consequences for students and teachers.

The law’s accountability requirements, for example, have not kept pace with local efforts to meet higher achievement standards. McPherson School District in Kansas received a waiver earlier this month from the U.S. Department of Education because it wanted to develop student assessments that were more rigorous than the state assessment required under NCLB.

The law is also overdue for an overhaul of its Title I provisions. New research shows that several pieces of the Title I program are not serving the disadvantaged students they were meant to help. One key example is the “supplemental education services” provision, which mandates tutoring for students in schools that do not make adequate yearly progress. Although hailed as a central tenet of NCLB, studies now show that these tutoring programs are minimally effective, with small improvements for a small fraction of students who receive at least 40 hours of tutoring.

Thoughtful proposals from President Obama and several lawmakers acknowledge the limitations of the current law and identify specific revisions. Many of these ideas were first introduced back in 2010, and students should not have to wait any longer for Congress to act. It’s time to regain momentum and tackle reauthorization now — before the outdated provisions of the law render it entirely arbitrary and obsolete.