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Bush: Reconsider class size

The governor has tied his proposal for a revote to a teacher pay increase. The September election would cost about $18-million.

By CARRIE JOHNSON
Published March 29, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush wants to spend $18-million to hold a special election asking voters to reconsider how much they want the size of classrooms around the state to shrink.

Bush and his supporters say the state would save billions of dollars if voters agreed to relax standards for the popular class size constitutional amendment approved in 2002.

A bill in Bush's sweeping education package would approve a special election Sept. 6 asking voters to freeze the caps on class sizes to districtwide averages, the current standard.

State law requires tightening the standards to a schoolwide average by the 2006-07 school year. Critics have said Bush's less rigid proposal would allow districts to maintain overcrowded schools instead of being forced to lower class sizes at each school.

Bush has tied his proposal to a boost in teacher pay and would create a $35,000 starting salary requirement with the savings from not having to build schools or hire teachers needed for the stricter class size requirements.

Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, the bill's sponsor, said she'd like to get that money to teachers as soon as possible, but even she has some reservations about a special election.

"If it's possible to have this passed, I'd like to see teachers get an increase in salary as fast as they can. They need it, it's long overdue," Lynn said. "On the other hand, I don't like to see money just going to a special election."

The bill faces some major obstacles.

A three-fourths vote by both chambers is required to hold a special election. This would be difficult in the Senate, where the 30 votes needed would have to include at least four Democrats.

If the Legislature opted to wait until the November 2006 general election, a three-fifths vote would be needed, but by then the school year would have begun. And Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, said voters may be confused because several other constitutional amendments are likely to appear on the ballot in 2006.

"How are going to decipher one from the other?" King asked. "How are you going to filter it?"

A survey of the state's 67 superintendents of elections estimated the cost of conducting an election in 2005 at $18.5-million.

The looser standards could be a hard sell to voters, who passed the class size amendment by 52 percent. It would be especially unpopular in South Florida, where schools are the most crowded and starting teacher salaries are higher.

The 2002 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.

So far, the state has spent $2-billion on class size reduction in the first two years. Bush has proposed spending another $1.8-billion in 2005-06. He has been a longtime foe of the amendment, warning that it would "block out the sun" since some economists' estimate it would cost as much as $10-million in construction costs alone by 2010.

But during a Senate hearing on Bush's proposed education package Monday, several lawmakers and education officials were critical of his plan.

"Teachers, by and large, are very, very uncomfortable boosting their salaries on the backs of students who might need individual attention," said Kevin Watson, a lobbyist for the Florida Education Association.

He said representatives from the association were still discussing possible alternatives with Bush that would be more palatable to teachers.

One suggestion King and other members of the Senate's Education Committee are exploring would keep the stricter class size requirements just for students in kindergarten through third grade.

"If you have to go to the general public anyway, why not go with something that would preserve the K-3 requirements?" King said. "We can afford it. We can't afford K-12."

King said he is still researching the potential cost of his proposal.

--Carrie Johnson can be reached at 850 224-7263 or cjohnson@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 29, 2005, 01:30:12]