Florida Governor Charlie Crist has announced he supports a Republican plan to increase the class size limits imposed by a state constitutional amendment that was passed in 2002.
Facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, leading Republicans including Gov. Charlie Crist want voters to recind their 2002 vote that mandated smaller classes.
Some officials supporting class size argue that, "smaller class sizes do little to improve student achievement". They say that 100 high school students in a classroom can learn just as well as 20 high school students in a classroom under the same teacher. That is totally not true.
The amendment as of this day, August 22, 2010, limits the number of students to 18 in grades K - 3; 22 in grades 4 - 8; and 25 in grades 9 - 12.
Districts face penalties of millions of dollars if they do not meet the mandate. Districts are not getting the funding from the state that would support the amendment.
Isn't that amazing. The state will not fund the amendment, but will penalize districts that do not adhere to the amendment. That's right, the state will penalize districts even though the districts don't have the funds to support the amendment. The state causes the districts to violate the amendment, and then the state violate the rights of the states. Is it intentional that the state denies financial resources to the districts in order to fine the districts. It is quite possible that is a way for the state to raise money at the detriment of the districts, at the detriment of the teachers, and at the detriment of the students.
Frederick Bryant
fbryant@nigerpublishing.com
August 22, 2010
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