Maine is the latest state to win flexibility from many of the more-onerous requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act under a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education.
That means 40 states, the District of Columbia, and eight California districts now have waivers under NCLB.
So who’s left? Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas—all states with sizable student populations—have pending applications. Pennsylvania, however, is so confident it is getting a waiver that it has told districts it’s okay to stop paying for transportation for students in persistently low-performing schools who want to attend another school. (This was one of the sanctions that states wanted flexibility to get rid of.)
As for the status of other states: Wyoming has decided to wait at least a year before submitting another application, while Iowa and California have pretty much had their applications rejected. North Dakota and Vermont also have withdrawn their requests. Two states have never applied: Montana and Nebraska.