States

California Asks for NCLB Waiver, but Without Strings

By Sean Cavanagh — February 29, 2012 1 min read
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California wants a waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act—but not under the conditions assigned by the Obama administration in its offer to provide states with that flexibility.

The state’s schools chief, Tom Torlakson, will present the state board of education next week with a plan to ask federal officials to drop a variety of sanctions California schools would face under the decade-old federal law.

Torlakson wants to free academically struggling California schools from having to adhere to various improvement mandates, such as providing supplemental education services and choice-related transportation services. Schools would instead be allowed to use federal Title 1 money in ways that better suit their needs, he said.

But California officials don’t want to adhere to the requirements the administration is making in exchange for granting waivers—such as designing new and improved accountability systems. See my item on Politics K-12 for more details.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the State EdWatch blog.