Cash-strapped schools request policy waivers

ATLANTA --- State officials are getting an avalanche of requests from local school boards to bend a few rules in an effort to cope with tight budgets.

Nearly 40 districts have requested at least one of a dozen types of waivers from the Georgia Department of Education. Opinions differ on whether these waivers would affect education.

Richmond County schools have received waivers from five regulations. The district receiving waivers for the most regulations is Douglas County, which has won a temporary pass on eight of 12 rules, including the maximum number of pupils in a class and the cap on administrative spending. Grappling with a $9 million cut in state spending, the district sought the waivers to use if funding gets tighter, said Elaine Hopkins, the associate superintendent for instruction there.

"It has the likelihood of affecting us instructionally," she said.

But others say the differences will show up more as strains and stress rather than dramatic problems.

"Generally speaking, adding a student or two into the classroom over the long haul doesn't affect student performance," said Jim Puckett, a lobbyist for the Georgia School Boards Association. "It does affect things like teacher morale and discipline."

The State Board of Education granted a blanket waiver to every district to increase class size by two students, but the individual waivers allow an additional two or three students. Class size has been the most requested waiver, with 32 of the 39 districts getting waivers requesting extra students.

Most of the requests are for details spelled out in one state law or another rather than trying to get around rules that the board could simply repeal.

One law the board can't relax for local districts is the federal No Child Left Behind, which sets accountability standards for student performance. So, despite the waivers from the board for other regulations, the performance standards remain in place.