The state education commissioner says the voter-approved amendment is too difficult to implement.
By ANITA KUMAR
Published September 25, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - Education Commissioner Jim Horne said Wednesday that the state can't meet the voter-approved mandate to reduce class sizes in Florida.
"The class-size amendment will never be implemented," Horne said at a meeting of the Board of Governors, which oversees higher education in Florida.
Horne said he isn't planning to defy the law. He said he is simply describing reality.
He made his comments as the governors joined the state Board of Education and Gov. Jeb Bush in asking lawmakers to put the multibillion-dollar class size issue back on the ballot.
"This sends a clear message that this does affect us," said Castell Bryant, a board member and Miami-Dade College administrator.
The $517-million being spent this year to reduce class sizes in K-12 is enough to cover a quarter of the university system budget or nearly half of the community college budget.
The amendment requires the state to give schools enough money to lower class sizes from kindergarten through high school. By 2010, they can be no larger than 18 in grades pre-K through 3, 22 in grades 4 through 8, and 25 in high school.
Horne, a Bush appointee who opposed the amendment before the November election, said Wednesday he can't force superintendents to reduce class size.
"I will work very hard to do it and enforce the new law," he said after the meeting. "I don't know what everybody expects me to do."
Horne said the mandate is further complicated by the new federal No Child Left Behind law, which allows students at failing schools to transfer to better-performing public schools.
Thousands of Florida students could be eligible for transfers next year.
"I would not want to be a superintendent in a large urban district," Horne said. "How can they truthfully implement it?"
The governors voted to ask for a repeal of the amendment after a brief discussion. Only student member Patrick Sullivan abstained from voting.
Sullivan, the student body president at Florida State University, suggested the board focus on other priorities and leave the amendment to the Board of Education, which oversees K-12 education.
His colleagues disagreed. One even criticized him for not making his vote count.
"It directly affects what we do," board chairwoman Carolyn Roberts said.
Bush campaigned against the amendment, which became a focal point of the governor's race last year. It was approved by 52 percent of the voters.
The Board of Education wants to reduce class sizes in K-3 only, and directed its staff to develop such a plan. Jim Warford, the chancellor of K-12 classes, estimated that would cost about $300-million next year, saving the state about $600-million.
But the governors Wednesday declined to support that recommendation until they have more time to study it.
