California's education standards have apparently been pushed back again this year -- but state education officials say next year there'll be no more Mr. Nice Guy.

More than 1,000 of Kern County's high school seniors -- and about 13,000 statewide -- could be allowed to graduate this year, even if they don't pass Algebra 1, a course that was considered a minimum requirement just a few months ago.

The state standard was barely in place when a school district in Santa Cruz appealed to the state board of education for waivers for about 150 of its seniors. That caused a domino effect that has expanded to include more than 200 school districts across California, including four in Kern County.

The waivers, approved earlier this year by the state, will allow struggling seniors to bypass state algebra requirements.

The Kern High School District applied for waivers for 897 of its approximately 8,000 seniors. But they only expect a fraction of their students to need them.

"Every single student on that list is currently enrolled in Algebra 1," said Terri Stanton, director of instruction for the Kern High School District. "Most have passed the first semester. I am confident most of them will pass the course.

"We think 70 to 80 percent of the students who receive waivers will pass algebra," she said. "But we would be remiss if we didn't apply."

Stanton and Lori Albrecht, an administrator at Wasco Union School District, said their districts made blanket applications for all students who had not completed the required course.

Of the 64 Wasco students who are expected to receive a state waiver, only nine are seriously at risk of failing Algebra, Albrecht said.

School districts in Ridgecrest and Tehachapi have also applied for waivers.

According to legislation passed in 2000, all high school students, including English learners and those in special education, were required to complete Algebra 1 to graduate. This year's graduating class was to be the first bound by the new rule.

"You have four years to pass; you have a bunch of chances," said Josephine Hurd, a 17-year-old junior at Bakersfield High School. "It's not hard."

Hurd and three other students interviewed at BHS Monday said they didn't have a problem with the state's algebra requirements. If students can't pass the one-year course in their sophomore year, they have the option to take a slower-paced two-year version, said 17-year-old senior Michael Stewart.

"I passed it in my sophomore year," Stewart said. "Students are more worried about the exit exam."

California's high school exit exam was administered to students for the first time in 2001. The purpose of the test is to ensure students who graduate from high school can demonstrate grade-level competency in reading, writing and mathematics.

But high school juniors and seniors don't have to worry about the exit exam. Last year, the state board of education pushed back the passage of the test as a diploma requirement to the class of 2006.

Some local schools resisted the temptation to postpone the math requirement.

Eight districts in Kern County that have high schools did not even apply for the algebra waivers.

Sherrill Hufnagel, the superintendent of the Delano Joint Union High School District, said the northern Kern County district included Algebra 1 in its district graduation requirements last year.

"The students who graduated last year were required to have Algebra 1," she said. "We didn't think it would be appropriate to apply for waivers this year."