Florida has been “reconsidering” its state constitutional class size amendment since…2002, a.k.a. the year it was passed by voters. (Yes, really.) Could the 238539045th time be the charm? Just to recap (no pun intended), that amendment limits elementary classrooms to eighteen students, middle school classrooms to twenty-two students, and high school students to twenty-five. But that’s not all. The cap is real-time, meaning that if, say, a mid-year transfer pushes the school over the magic number, the school must hire an additional teacher and find classroom space to readjust in February, or whenever. “Say you get the 19th student,” explains State Senator Don Gaetz. “It isn’t just the 19th student. There’s a cascading effect. You have to set up a new classroom, and that requires a teacher and more space.” The state has already spent $16 billion to implement all of this, even though the legislature passed a temporary “fix” last fall that postponed the law’s full effect, namely caps by classroom, until fall 2010. Florida Governor Charlie Crist (who is running for U.S. Senate) now favors freezing the law as it now operates, i.e. with caps calculated as school-wide averages. That’s still a dubious use of money, considering how scant is the evidence that modest reductions in class size make a difference in school performance or pupil achievement), but Florida faces a far-worse alternative: room-by-room caps, busing students or running schools in double shifts to even out enrollment, and imposing financial penalties on schools that don’t comply. Jeez, Florida, seriously?
“Gov. Charlie Crist backs easing class-size rules,” by Shannon Colavecchio and Jeffrey S. Solocheck, The Miami Herald, January 26, 2010