Florida Senate OKs ballot measure on easing class-size limits

It's looking more likely that the Nov. 2 ballot will include a state constitutional amendment to modify strict limits on classroom enrollment set to go into effect next school year.

Republicans in the state Senate today mustered the necessary three-fifths majority to put the amendment on the ballot, which would delay indefinitely requirements of the 2002 class-size reduction amendment.

The new amendment looks likely to pass out of the Republican-controlled House, and it does not need to be signed by Gov. Charlie Crist.

If 60 percent of voters approve, the measure would continue to allow school districts to use school-wide averages to meet the class-size limits outlined in the 2002 amendment.

If the measure fails, each class will have to meet these caps: 18 students in kindergarten through third grade; 22 students in fourth through eighth; and 25 students in ninth through 12th.

The bill's passage put the finishing touch on a package of education reforms Republicans have pushed through the Senate with a month remaining in the legislative session. On Wednesday, Republican majorities passed bills to expand vouchers for poor students, make graduation requirements tougher and tie teacher pay and continued employment to student learning gains.

Republicans said goals of the class-size amendment had been mostly achieved. Citing support from school board and school superintendent associations, Republicans argued that school districts should have flexibility to spend tax dollars on more pressing needs than fulfilling the class-size limits.

The new amendment is tempered in its effect, Republicans claimed, by holding the number of students exceeding the per-class caps to three students in kindergarten through third grade and five students in the other grades.

"The class sizes are now a very manageable size; they are right-sized," said Sen. Nancy Detert, a Republican from Venice.

As they have with the other Republican education measures, Democrats opposed meddling with the voters' decision in 2002. They argued that the hard caps on classroom enrollment could be delayed by legislation and predicted the measure would be defeated at the polls.

"What's going to happen in this state is you're going to have competing forces spending tons of money on advertising for the class-size amendment and against the class-size amendment, money that could be used to help this weak economy," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat from Miami Gardens.