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A Times EditorialSo far, the financial impact of the class size amendment is less than one-fifth the amount Education Commissioner Jim Horne claimed it would be. Supporters have not been fooled by his doomsaying.
The Constitution ought not prescribe how many students are assigned to each school classroom, but the state Board of Education is losing the credibility to advance that argument. The very budget that has prompted the board to renew its battle with voters shows why.
Last fall, when voters were faced with a citizen initiative to reduce school class sizes, Education Commissioner Jim Horne toured the state with a dire financial warning: "In addition to the $9-billion needed for new schools, annual operating costs will be $2.5-billion." He also argued, in no particular order, that: schools would have to rezone students and put them on buses, operate in double sessions and use portable classrooms; 45 counties would be forced to increase their sales tax to 8.5 or 8.9 cents per dollar; inequities between counties would require another $1.2-billion to remedy.
By way of contrast, the budget recommendation the board adopted on Tuesday apportions $517-million to class size reduction for 2003-04. This year, the amount is $468-million. In other words, the financial impact so far is less than one-fifth the amount Horne argued was necessary just 10 months ago.
Still, the board was aghast, and Horne was primed. "This is a hurricane that will swamp the boat," he said. "It has a draconian kind of impact."
There are reasonable arguments to be made against the class-size provision in the Constitution, not the least of which is the potential for litigation and the denial of discretion to principals to determine which classes can handle more children and which can't. But Horne's Armageddon rhetoric and his fiscal exaggerations only alienate parents who already think his main objective is to teach their children as cheaply as possible.
Class size, particularly in the early grades, affects learning, and it also tends to reflect commitment. Parents know the difference between a kindergarten class with 30 students and one with 18. Voters have adopted more than one constitutional amendment aimed at improving school quality, and have voted in numerous county referendums to increase their own taxes for schools. A statewide poll in May found that support for the class size amendment has actually grown since voters adopted it in November, despite the constant doomsaying from political opponents.
As Horne and education board members seek another vote on the class size amendment, possibly next fall, their budgetary protests are diminished by their duplicity. Horne and Gov. Jeb Bush try to argue that the only way to reduce class size is to pay teachers less and put children in trailers, but not everyone is foolish enough to believe that is the only alternative.
The amount allocated to class size reduction this year, for better or worse, is less than 1 percent of the state budget. If that's a hurricane, then Florida needs the rain.