Editor

A proposal to raise Florida’s limit on the number of students allowed per classroom will be on the Nov. 2 ballot in the form of a constitutional amendment, following approval of a bill Thursday by the House of Representatives.

After less than an hour of discussion, the House voted 77-41 to let voters decide the issue. The Senate voted 26-12 for the measure on March 25.

Floridians in 2002 approved an amendment that limited the maximum number of students in classrooms: kindergarten through third-grade classes were limited to 18 students; grades four through eight, 22 students; and high school, 25 students. Final class sizes were to be implemented by the 2010-11 school year.

The new requirements, if approved by 60 percent of voters, would allow these requirements to be met by using a school’s class size average instead of by classroom. The amendment, which would be retroactive to the start of the new school year, would add three students to the kindergarten through third-grade classroom cap and five students to the fourth-grade through high school caps.

In an interview earlier this year, Osceola County School District Superintendent Michael Grego said that without a change to the law, final implementation of the 2002 amendment would cost the state $15 billion this coming school year, since the 2002 amendment requires the state to provide the money for meeting the class size requirements.

“That is money for classrooms that doesn’t go to roads or other things,” Grego said.

Grego also said the “hard caps” by classroom means that just two or three students newly enrolling in a school could require that school to split up classes, requiring an additional teacher and classroom space.

“That is not a reasonable approach to running a school,” Grego said. “Everyone wants smaller class sizes, but at what cost?”

Grego said complying with the law as it is now for the next school year would cost the district $9 million and that work has already started to comply with the current law. He also said the burden to meet the requirements has escalated in the harder economic times, with less revenue coming in due to falling property values.

Grego also said voters made the right choice in 2002 to limit class size because reducing the number of students in a classroom from 32 down to 24, for example, resulted in significant academic gains because students were able to receive more individualized help. However, he also said reducing the number of students in a classroom from 23 to 19, for example, produces a “diminished return” in terms of better academic performance.

In a prepared statement provided before Thursday’s vote, Kathy Donato, president of the Osceola Classroom Teachers Association, said she believes the Legislature needs to comply with the Florida Constitution, which requires the state to provide funding to meet the current class size goals.

 “Were the state to fulfill its funding requirement, smaller individual classrooms could exist,” Donato said.

Donato also said teachers and parents have not been clamoring to increase the size of classes, a sentiment echoed in statements made by the Florida Education Association.

“We don’t need to weaken our Florida Constitution and dramatically increase the number of children in our classrooms,” Donato said.

Local state senators voting for the measure included Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne. Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, voted against the bill.

The breakout of the vote for the House was not posted by deadline Friday.