My beat as the Washington correspondent for Workforce Management is pretty broad. I define it as legislation, regulations and court rulings that affect employers. On most days, there are a couple news events that are part of my portfolio.

Much of the time, I have to do triage, ignoring some potential news while turning my focus to another promising area. One way that I’ve done this at the committee level is by concentrating on the “labor” portion of the House and Senate panels that oversee labor and education policy.

But a recent bill is causing me to rethink my approach. When it comes to workforce preparation, employers increasingly are just as concerned about the K-12 level as they are about college education and incumbent-worker training.

Congress and the Obama administration have emphasized this point in a bill that the House approved September 17, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. It would overhaul the college student loan system while instituting other changes, including reform of community colleges and early childhood education programs.

In a news conference urging passage of the bill, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that education and, in effect, workforce preparation has to be viewed holistically. In his view, it’s a seamless path from Head Start to K-12 to college.

“We have to address these together,” Duncan said.

If a student stumbles at the beginning of his or her educational journey, it’s tough to catch up, according to one House leader.

“Many of them don’t recover in terms of their ability to prosper in our economy, in our democracy,” said Rep. George Miller, D-California and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

Education ties in directly with innovation—the holy grail for business. Companies that come up with killer apps—or products and services—are the ones that will prevail in the global market.

“We know that the nations that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow,” said President Barack Obama in a September 21 speech about innovation. “The ability of new industries to thrive depends on workers with the knowledge and the know-how to contribute in those fields. Unfortunately, today, our primary and secondary schools continue to trail many of our competitors, especially in the key areas of math and science.”

The student aid bill has its detractors. Republicans argue that it is another example of the government takeover of the economy orchestrated by Democrats—this time in the student loan sector. Banks and other financial institutions are resisting the measure because it largely eliminates their role in education lending.

But most members of the business community can get behind other dimensions of the bill, including the community college reforms and the focus on early childhood education.

After a February speech in Washington, Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini told reporters that the U.S. had to become a “high-knowledge industry economy.”

For instance, he sees biotechnology as a big part of America’s future. That sector depends on a steady supply of scientists and engineers.

“The biggest threat is if the educational system erodes the ability to [create] those jobs here,” Otellini said. He advocated a broad, bottom-up approach, starting with K-12.

It’s a message that Congress is hearing.