Fla. Class-size Debate over Flexibility, Funding (FL)

October 14, 2010

"Flexibility" and "funding" are the buzzwords of the debate over a Nov. 2 ballot proposal that would loosen Florida’s class-size limits.
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Amendment 8's supporters say it'll give schools the flexibility they need to avoid such drastic measures as busing kids to other schools and combining two grades in a single classroom to comply with class-size requirements.

"By voting for Amendment 8, Floridians can make class sizes more manageable without making them overcrowded," said Larry Wood, managing director of the Florida Association of School Administrators. "Amendment 8 strikes the right balance between achieving flexibility and smaller class sizes."

Opponents say Amendment 8’s really about funding because it’s expected to save $350 million to $1 billion in class-size costs every year. That’s money, they say, public schools no longer would get because the amendment doesn’t say where it would go.

"It doesn’t improve our schools and it takes away what we, the taxpayers of Florida, want for our schools," said Karen Aronowitz, president of United Teachers of Dade, the local teachers union in Miami. "It’s a real loss of money to our school system, and I don’t know why anyone would approve of that."

As with all amendments, it will require 60 percent voter approval.

Placed on the ballot by the Republican-controlled Legislature, the measure’s backers include many local school officials, most GOP politicians and business interests. The Yes On 8 campaign to "right size class size" is headquartered at the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Both major candidates for governor, Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Alex Sink, also support it.

The Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union, and its local affilia tes are spearheading the opposition. Other opponents include the Florida PTA, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Florida Association for Child Care Management. Miami state Sen. Alex Villalobos, one of the few Republican politicians who oppose the amendment, chairs the Vote No on 8 coalition formed by the FEA.

Voters adopted the existing class-size limits through a citizen initiative in 2002 over the opposition of then-Gov. Jeb Bush. It has been phased in since then and for the first time this fall it’s going into full effect by requiring every core curriculum class to have no more than 18 students in pre-kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eight grade and 25 in high school.

Amendment 8 would increase those limits by three students in pre-kindergarten through third grade and five in the other grades. Schools also would have to abide by the existing caps on an average basis just as they did last year under the phase-in plan.

Critics, including Bush, argued the class-size limits would be too expensive even before they were passed. As the compliance deadline neared this year the focus shifted to the flexibility issue.

Opponents of the existing limits argued that schools would be forced to create new classes just to accommodate, for instance, a 19th child in the second grade. Most schools, though, are using or contemplating other solutions such as local tax increases, busing and two-grade classrooms.

Amendment 8 would give schools some wiggle room if a 19th, 20th, or 21st child shows up after the school year begins as long as all classes in a school average 18 or less. Some classes would need to have fewer than 18 students to balance those that exceed the limit.

"Fr om a day to say operational standpoint you maintain the integrity of what the people of Florida voted for in the sense of school-wide average with that flexibility to accommodate mobility," said Broward County School Superintendent James Notter. "Certainly in Florida we are more mobile than in other parts of the country."

Villalobos isn’t buying that argument. He says the Legislature could have given the school districts flexibility by passing a new law rather than a constitutional amendment or by offering an amendment with flexibility that didn’t affect funding.

He cited a Florida Supreme Court opinion that cleared the 2002 initiative for the ballot. It says that measure, rather than restricting lawmakers, gives them "latitude."

"Latitude is flexibility," Villalobos said. "We already have flexibility."

He also pointed to the Legislature’s passage of a law exempting charter schools, which receive tax money but are run by entities other than local school boards, from the class-size limits.

"How do you exempt charter schools if the claim is that the Legislature has no flexibility?" Villalobos asked.

The House two years ago passed a flexibility bill supported by the teacher unions as well as local school officials. It would have required schools to meet the caps only at the start of each school year so they wouldn’t be in violation if that 19th student arrives later. The Senate declined to take up the bill on the advice of lawyers who said the only cure would be another constitutional amendment.

The Legislature, though, did not offer the once-a-year count as an amendment, op ting instead for what became Amendment 8.

Rep. Will Weatherford, one of Amendment 8’s chief sponsors, acknowledged cost saving was a factor.

"You can throw as much money at it as you want, but you’re always going to have problems complying" with the existing limits, said the Wesley Chapel Republican. Weatherford said Amendment 8 will allow the Legislature to use money saved on class size for more pressing other education needs, such as teacher pay raises.

Opponents, though, fear the savings will go to non-school purposes such as tax cuts, road-building or health care.

"I think 25 years of history showing that the Florida Legislature does not fully fund education and tries to do everything on the cheap, that their whole goal is to pack more kids into a classroom," FEA President Andy Ford said. "And, that’s what this amendment will do."