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Associated PressBush joins the effort to get the voter-approved amendment repealed and use the money for other education needs.
MIAMI - The state Board of Education joined Gov. Jeb Bush in opposing the class size amendment Tuesday and is seeking ways to persuade voters to repeal the measure they approved in November.
Board members said the nearly $1-billion the state needs to spend this year and next to reduce class sizes should go for teacher salaries and hiring reading specialists instead.
The seven-member board, which is appointed by the governor, ordered state Education Commissioner Jim Horne and the Florida Department of Education to develop a plan for seeking repeal of the amendment and to identify other ways to spend the estimated $600-million it would save.
Board member William L. Proctor called the approval of the class size amendment a "mistake" that needed to be rectified.
"If you make a mistake, you don't keep doing it," he said.
Bush had campaigned against the class size amendment, which was approved by 52 percent of the voters. At one point during the campaign, he said he had "devious plans" to circumvent the amendment. He later said the statement was in jest.
"The amendment's unintended consequences include limiting funds and local flexibility for K-12 schools as well as our universities and community colleges," the governor said Tuesday in a statement following the board's vote. "Ultimately, services to Florida citizens will also be sacrificed."
U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, who led the campaign for the amendment, criticized Bush and the board for attempting to subvert the will of the voters.
"While Gov. Bush and his cronies at the Board of Education remain silent about the $23-billion in annual tax exemptions they continue to protect ... our students still receive less funding than any other state in the union," Meek, D-Miami, said in a statement.
The board endorsed the repeal shortly before approving a $15.2-billion budget for kindergarten through higher education in 2004-05. That's $1.2-billion more than the education budget for this year.
It includes an additional $517.4-million to pay for the class size amendment. Added to the $468.2-million approved by the Legislature for 2003-04, it brings the class size spending total to $985.6-million for its first two years.
Horne, also a gubernatorial appointee, said he wasn't sure what his role would be in leading the campaign to repeal the amendment until he studied the legal and constitutional issues of his position as a state commissioner.
A longtime opponent of the class size amendment, Horne said the issue was no longer political. "These are high-level education policies," he said after the vote.
The amendment directs the capping of kindergarten through third-grade classes at 18 students, fourth- through eighth-grade classes at 22 students, and high school classes at 25 students by 2010.
But board members expressed their concern about the class size amendment by unanimously endorsing its repeal in a voice vote.
The board supported lowering class sizes in kindergarten through third grade only, and directed the department to develop such a plan. Jim Warford, chancellor of K-12 classes, estimated that would cost about $300-million, saving the state about $600-million in 2004-05.
"Everything beyond that, I think, we're wasting money and we're actually making the situation worse," said Proctor.
Proctor and others said it would be impossible to predict the class sizes in high schools because students could choose to use vouchers to attend other schools with little notice to a district.
Bush, Horne and board members said the money would be better spent increasing teacher salaries, training reading coaches to help teachers instruct children, and improving school facilities.