Bush yields on class sizes
But he proposes using districtwide averages and applying the savings to teacher pay.
By JONI JAMES and CARRIE JOHNSON
Published February 15, 2005
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday abandoned his effort to repeal Florida's popular class size amendment and unveiled a scaled-back plan that also increases teacher pay.
Conceding that repealing the amendment would be difficult, Bush asked lawmakers to put a measure before voters that would essentially freeze the caps on class sizes to the current standard. That would give school districts more flexibility, he said.
Schools are required to meet class size caps based on a districtwide average. But under state law, those standards tighten in 2008 to a schoolwide average and eventually class by class.
Bush said the state can't build schools or hire teachers fast enough to meet the stricter class size cap.
"Intuitively, we all want lower class sizes, and intellectually as well," Bush said, flanked by dozens of education officials and House Speaker Allan Bense and Senate President Tom Lee.
"This will honor the intent of the voters who supported the class size amendment. And it will free up resources so that we can address a true challenge in our state: how to attract and retain quality teachers."
The measure would set minimum teacher pay at $35,000 a year and require starting teacher pay to remain above the national average.
The plan was shaped by what voters might approve, Bush said.
Fifty-two percent of Florida voters cast ballots to amend the state Constitution to include the class size cap in 2002, when Bush was elected to a second term.
The mandate requires the state by 2010 to cap class sizes to no more than 18 students for kindergarten through third grade; 22 for fourth- through eighth-grade classes; and 25 for high school.
But critics said Bush's proposal all but neuters that original plan because districtwide averages allow overcrowded schools to be offset by those with underenrollment.
While the governor characterized his plan as class size reduction, classes in 46 of the state's 67 districts where districtwide averages already meet the class size cap would not have to get smaller, including Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Citrus.
The remaining 21 districts have through 2007 to have districtwide averages meet the cap under current law.
Hernando is one of 17 districts that currently comply with the caps in all but one category. Hernando meets the cap for middle and high school classes but fails in kindergarten through third grade. Hernando's districtwide average for that group is 19.8 students, 1.8 students more than the 18-student cap.
Four counties - Miami-Dade, Flagler, St. Johns and Walton counties - fail the cap in two groups.
Bush's plan could be unpopular in South Florida, where schools are the most crowded and starting teacher salaries are higher. But in the rest of the state, teachers might embrace it. In 2003-04, the last year for which data was available, starting teachers in Florida earned an average of $28,607.
The state teachers union, which supported the class size cap in 2002, was skeptical. "The voters who approved this had a set of expectations, and we're just starting down the path to meeting those," said Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the Florida Education Association. "With this proposal, we'll stop."
Still, the union will keep an open mind about the measure, he said.
Getting the proposed amendment on the ballot will take a three-fifths vote by both chambers of the Legislature. To hold the vote before November 2006, a three-fourths vote by both chambers is required.
Bush has never been shy about criticizing the class size cap. During his re-election campaign, he warned it would demolish the state budget. The following year, he urged the Legislature to ask voters to repeal it, citing estimates that put the multiyear costs as high as $28-billion by 2010.
But the amendment's supporters, including Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, have always objected to those cost estimates, saying state economists pumped up their estimates because Bush and other state officials were so intent on defeating the 2002 measure. Another legislative analyst estimated the cost would reach no higher than $12-billion.
So far, the state has spent $2-billion in the first two years. Bush proposed spending another $1.8-billion in 2005-06.
Bush contends the higher numbers are still on the mark, saying the toughest financial constraints would come when they are determined by school-by-school averages.
Wayne Blanton, director of the Florida School Board Association, supports the Bush plan.
"What has happened is that we have tried to impose something at the state level that is impossible to implement by 2010," said Blanton. "It's all well and good as an idea, but it's impossible to do."