Misuse of this little-known waiver is driving Fowler teacher turnover | Opinion

Walk into any rural Valley school today, and you feel it immediately: The teachers who knew every sibling, every cousin and every family story are simply not there anymore.

The pattern is unmistakable. In just the Fowler Unified School District, 75 of 127 teachers have left in the last few years. That isn’t normal. And it isn’t happening by accident.

It’s happening because of a loophole.

Across Fresno County, school districts are increasingly relying on a little-known waiver that lets them sidestep the state-required 55% of funding into classroom instruction, with many now using it more than once. Nearly two-thirds of districts in our county have used it. Statewide, roughly a third have done the same.

A rule meant to protect classrooms is now accelerating their decline. And what disappears from classrooms doesn’t just change instruction, it reshapes entire communities.

For years, Fowler’s schools punched above their weight — the kind of place other rural districts pointed to when they talked about stability, commitment and community roots.

We know this because we’ve lived it.

We grew up in Fowler’s classrooms. Our mothers were teachers. And we’re now raising our children here. While we serve in different roles — one a Fowler Unified teacher and the other a Fowler City Council member — we share the belief that strong schools depend on educators who stay long enough to earn the trust of students, families and the broader community.

That stability — the foundation rural communities have relied on for generations — is now at risk because of how this waiver is being used.

How the loophole works

Here’s how that plays out in practice: districts can get a waiver by claiming financial hardship or by showing their teacher salaries are “comparable” to similar districts.

On paper, that sounds reasonable; in practice, it defies basic logic.

As the Fresno County Office of Education explained to GV Wire, districts are allowed to compare themselves to other districts that also failed to meet the 55% rule and then use that circular comparison to justify the exemption.

It’s the educational equivalent of copying the only other kid who didn’t do the homework right and still getting a passing grade.

Districts can request a waiver in any year they fall short of the 55% requirement, and because the law places no limit on repeat use, the same district can qualify for these exemptions year after year.

We don’t have to look far to see how distorted the system has become.

Fowler Unified, now seeking its second waiver, justified its request by citing five comparison districts (three of which had also applied for waivers) along two more: Clovis Unified — one of California’s largest districts, with scale and staffing realities vastly different from a far smaller rural district; and a small elementary charter — one that doesn’t resemble a comprehensive TK–12 district in structure, staffing or obligations.

Under the current process, all five — including these last two — were treated as eligible comparisons.

No parent, teacher or policymaker would look at those examples and think, “This is a fair comparison.” Yet, the system treats them as if they are interchangeable.

When a district secures a waiver through these comparisons and diverts money away from the classroom, the effects don’t first appear in spreadsheets. They show up in hallways where familiar and trusted faces are missing. They show up in classrooms where students feel the turnover long before test scores reflect it. And they show up in the community in ways budgets never capture.

What families feel in their schools and communities begins with the choices districts make on paper.

Where is the money going?

When the required money isn’t reaching the classroom, where is it going?

In Fowler, during a period of largely flat enrollment, the administrative budget nearly tripled as administrative salaries rose more than 70%, while teacher pay increased by only about 22%.

This is exactly what that spending requirement was meant to prevent.

But because of the waiver system, districts can follow the law on paper while abandoning it in practice.

A practice that has become a pattern is now reshaping schools and communities. Across Fresno County, teachers are confronting whether they can keep their careers and remain in the Valley. Some are choosing between their profession and their home.

Unless the state reevaluates how this waiver is being applied, next year will look the same — or worse.

Local families deserve to know how these waivers work, how many districts rely on them and what that means for the quality and stability of their schools.

The alarm is already sounding in Valley classrooms, and looking away would fail the students and teachers who live the consequences.

If the state wants stability in Valley schools, it must stop relying on a process that so readily permits these exemptions and weakens the very law designed to safeguard instruction; it must tighten the definition of “comparable.” It must close the circular-logic loophole; and it must ensure that waivers are the exception, not the norm.

Classrooms cannot withstand any more years of attrition and instability.

Karnig Kazarian is a member of the Fowler City Council. Christopher Ghilarducci is a teacher in the Fowler Unified School District.