Class Size Law

[ckrealtor88]

Looks like you've been put in your place by a member of the SWFD...

I joined this post after learning about the drug issues in our schools. Seems some people fear hearing the truth and will then make excuse after excuse to protect those responsible.

Your reference to R. Rangle's signs is a good one.

 

[Bob Wells]

Looks like you've been put in your place by a member of the SWFD...

I joined this post after learning about the drug issues in our schools. Seems some people fear hearing the truth and will then make excuse after excuse to protect those responsible.

Your reference to R. Rangle's signs is a good one.

With respect, I make very few comments reference where I work, although I do make comments ref: Unions, working people/ government employees and politics in general and only represent my views not those of my employer or fellow firefighters. Also just so there is no mistake I was replying to tsutcli. Thank You

 

[j p nettles]

It was another give-away to the unions so that they could have more members, power and money. All public sector unions should be banned or strictly restricted in their incestuous relationships with politicians - especially local pols.

I'm retired now but I've worked in management most of my life and I've never been a member of a union. I know quite a few union members who don't necessarily vote in lock step with their union's endorsements. I voted for the class size amendment in 2002. I make my own decisions when voting.

 

[Zebraspots]

Smaller class size is one of the proven ways to improve learning and test scores.

I don't know all the politics and theories as to why we can't follow this rule, but there is a reason why it was made law.

My guess is that the amount it would cost to comply with both the spirit and letter of the law is minor compared to all the other things the school district spends money on.

 

[Bob Hudson]

Read this USA Today Article.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-26-classsize26_ST_N.htm

The results are not as clear cut as many people think.

 

[j p nettles]

I'm not a teacher and never have been but my wife was a teacher for 32 years so I trust her views on education. In a perfect world smaller classes are better. However, you also need good teachers. 20 something party girls aren't the ideal teachers IMO. Also funding has dried up for good teachers and smaller classes because of lower tax revenues and I also believe mismanagement of schools is a factor. In Walton County we have an "energy guru" to tell school staff when to turn the lights out. A Chelco rep could do the same thing for free. And a lot of us thought the lottery would indeed fund public education but as usual legislators started fiddling with that so that too was a frivolous assumption.

 

[Bob Hudson]

This editorial is from the NW Florida Daily News



EDITORIAL: Counties, costs and class sizes

Published: Friday, October 25, 2013 at 16:13 PM.

Congratulations to the Okaloosa County School District, whose planners appear to have complied with Florida’s class size limits at all schools — and to have done so while keeping costs and hirings in check. “We did it with absolute fidelity,” said Superintendent of Schools Mary Beth Jackson.

It’s no reflection on school officials that they’ve done an excellent job of meeting questionable goals.
The goals were set 11 years ago, in 2002, when voters approved a constitutional amendment capping class sizes in Florida’s public schools. The caps: 18 students per class in kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grades, and 25 in core subject classes in high school. The limits were phased in and now are in full effect.

This newspaper opposed the class size limits from the beginning.

There was something inherently nutty about the idea of constantly moving students around to meet cookie-cutter targets. Supporters said smaller classes would improve education, but research on that point was fuzzy. Beginning in the late 1980s, Kansas City, Mo., reduced student-teacher ratios to about 12-to-1 and built 15 new schools; a 1998 study found that those reforms had failed to raise test scores.

Test scores aren’t booming in Okaloosa County, either. In June of this year, we reported that FCAT results “showed the number of students passing the writing exam had fallen below the state average and that fewer third-graders passed the math section of the (test) than last year.”

Clearly, smaller classes are not a quick path to educational excellence.

School officials in Walton and Santa Rosa counties are reaching a similar conclusion. They say they’ve struggled to meet the class size limits by shuffling students from classroom to classroom and hiring more teachers, but it’s a losing battle.

Said Walton Superintendent of Schools Carlene Anderson: “I’m not going to start scrambling children around just to make the numbers fit.”

Unfortunately, making the numbers fit is what the class size decree is all about.

 

[Zebraspots]

Here is what many in this country (and Congress) fail to grasp: When something is properly made a law, you then have to follow it whether you agree with it or not.

If you don't like it, change the law. I voted for the amendment, as did the majority of voters. The school board had years to implement it and failed. That is unacceptable.

 

[Andy A]

Here is what many in this country (and Congress) fail to grasp: When something is properly made a law, you then have to follow it whether you agree with it or not.

If you don't like it, change the law. I voted for the amendment, as did the majority of voters. The school board had years to implement it and failed. That is unacceptable.

Tell that to our present President and many, many others in Washington D.C. To think that school class size improves the education of students is a joke.

 

[Bob Wells]

Tell that to our present President and many, many others in Washington D.C. To think that school class size improves the education of students is a joke.

Based on what? An editorial from the Daily News. Personally, I think that if The State and Federal governments stayed out of local schools and allowed them to educate and test instead of having FCAT and Common Core type programs and a teacher to student ratio that allow for more education and less babysitting we may be better off. That is just my opinion. I teach classes and the groups I teach through limit the student to teacher ratio from 10-1 and 6-1 depending on the curriculum.