Class sizes turn into state budget battle

The state Senate is challenging Gov. Beverly Perdue, the N.C. Association of Educators and conventional wisdom with  its budget bill. While closing a $3 billion hole in the state budget, Perdue increased state spending on education, and she pointedly said the state shouldn't save money by increasing class size. The Senate said "not so fast."

Increasing class size by just two students, to 20 children in kindergarten through third grade and to 22 students in fourth through 12th grade would save the state $320 million. Senate Democrats (in the same party as Perdue) decided that was a good way to save $320 million. The state has been reducing class size for more than a decade. Smaller classes were a favorite promise of Govs. Mike Easley and Jim Hunt. It seems reasonable that smaller classes would mean better learning because teachers could give each child more attention, but research shows that reducing class size has little impact on student achievement. The primary beneficiaries of smaller class sizes are teachers. Smaller classes require more teachers to teach them, so it's no surprise that the NCAE, which derives member income from teachers, strongly supports smaller classes. And NCAE has been a major supporter of Perdue.

Local school systems, on the other hand, have borne the burden of implementing reduced class sizes. The state provided additional funding for teachers but not additional funding for classrooms. So local school boards had to find the money to add onto schools, which might shift from 50 classrooms of 22 students each to 55 classrooms of 20 students each. Where are you going to put those extra classes? In a closet? In a corner of the gym? Or in a costly mobile unit?

If the Senate's plan to temporarily increase class sizes goes through, school superintendents won't be particularly relieved. They've already expanded facilities to accommodate the added classrooms as smaller class sizes were mandated over the past decade. The state will save on the salaries of  an estimated 6,200 teachers, but it's the local principals who'll have to tell teachers they're being laid off.