Class size result may pit district vs. district

Districts in North Florida fear that their southern counterparts will get more money as a result of the class size amendment.

By STEPHEN HEGARTY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 12, 2002

A week after voters approved a new constitutional amendment to reduce class sizes, some school districts already are preparing to fight over money.

The battle lines are familiar: North vs. South.

In South Florida, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties have poured money into raising teacher salaries. Often the tradeoff has been larger class sizes. Now those districts are among those with the highest salaries and biggest classes.

In Central and North Florida, some district officials believe South Florida could receive more than its fair share of state money to reduce class sizes as the new amendment requires.

"The initial calculations do show that a big chunk is going to go to South Florida," Education Secretary Jim Horne said. "We don't want to be seen as being more generous to counties that haven't helped themselves."

State leaders have their hands full trying to figure out how to raise money to reduce class sizes in all grades statewide. The state has estimated it will cost $27.5-billion during the eight-year phase-in period, though other estimates are less than one-third that amount. Dividing the money fairly will be as difficult as raising it.

Miami-Dade is first among Florida school districts in size, first in teacher salaries and has the eighth-largest class sizes. Broward is second in size, sixth in teacher salaries and has the third-largest class sizes. Palm Beach ranks fourth in size, second in teacher salaries and has the fifth-highest class sizes.

"It's pretty clear that those that have the higher salaries also have the highest class sizes," Horne said.

In Florida, school districts routinely have to choose between holding the line on class size and boosting teacher salaries. Rarely do they get enough money to do both. Those that have chosen smaller classes tend to have modest salaries.

South Florida school districts would be expected to get a large share of any state money to reduce class sizes because they are among the largest and fastest growing in the state.

"We have large class sizes because we have lots of kids," said Annette Katz, communications director for United Teachers of Dade, the teachers union. "Teachers that have to deal with lots of kids, you need to compensate them. If we didn't pay them better, we wouldn't have them."

But Miami-Dade also has made choices that increased class size.

This summer, the Miami-Dade School Board voted to increase class size to help alleviate a budget crisis. During the debate, the teachers union president said the board could increase class size now and expect to get the classes reduced after the class size amendment passed.

"If there was ever a time to increase class size, now is it," said Miami-Dade union president Pat Tornillo. "We're just going to get the funding back, plus."

Other districts have made different decisions.

"We'd like to pay our teachers better, but we work real hard to keep our class sizes low," said Tony Anderson, superintendent of Liberty County in North Florida, which has some of the state's smallest class sizes and lowest average teacher salaries.

Anderson said that in a small district such as Liberty, there is great public pressure to keep class sizes low. His district had one kindergarten class with 32 children earlier this year.

"The PTO and the parents let me know pretty quick," he said. "We split that class."

It is not easy, Anderson said, to raise salaries when a district spends money to reduce class size. He and others worry that districts that have worked to keep class sizes small will lose out.

"We don't want to be penalized for doing the right thing," said Pinellas Superintendent Howard Hinesley. The Pinellas school district has the 25th largest class size, well below the state average, and the 11th highest average teacher salary. "We have raised the (teacher-pupil ratio) once in my tenure. And then we brought it back down as soon as we could."

It is unclear how districts will be required to reduce class sizes. The amendment says that by the year 2010 schools can have no more than 18 students assigned to a teacher in prekindergarten through third grade, 22 kids in grades 4 through 8, and 25 in high school. During the eight-year phase-in, schools are supposed to reduce classes by an average of two kids per year.

Incoming U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Miami Democrat and the chief proponent of the amendment, has said there will be flexibility. But it is unclear whether the class size caps will be strictly enforced or represent a goal. During the campaign, Meek rejected arguments that school districts would have to bus children to distant schools when the 19th child showed up in a class with an 18-child limit.

-- Information from the Miami Herald was used in this report.

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