State board approved three out of four ed waivers in 2011
School districts submitted nearly 900 applications for waivers from various elements of the state’s Education Code in 2011 with the California State Board of Education granting its approval 75 percent of the time.
The numbers, released this week in a new report from the California Department of Education, are down from those posted in 2010 but still continue a dramatic multi-year upswing in activity that began with the onset of the economic recession.
Challenged by deep funding cuts and the need to keep pace with requirements that the Legislature was not prepared to relax, local educational agencies were actually encouraged by the Schwarzenegger administration to seek flexibility through the wavier process beginning in 2008. That same attitude has been largely embraced by Gov. Jerry Brown’s appointees to the state board as well.
Indeed, Schwarzenegger’s last year in office – 2010 – the state board considered 1,243 waiver requests, granting 87 percent of them.
Last year – Brown’s first during his current term – a total of 893 waivers were sent to the state board for consideration