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Thursday, March 29, 2007
Talk About A Class Size Reversal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After taking an unyielding stance last year that public school classes should meet lower size requirements, leaders in the Georgia General Assembly are reversing course — at least for high schools.
Earlier this week, House lawmakers passed a bill that wipes out lower, absolute size limits for all regular education high school classes in core subjects, such as English, math, science and social studies.
Under current law, next school year, high schools were supposed to maintain classes of no more than 28 pupils in those core classes. If this new bill passes, principals could continue assigning as many as 32 kids per class.
In February, state Rep. Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth) had offered a bill to delay smaller high school classes for a couple more years so school systems had time to prepare for the financial hit of hiring more teachers and procuring more classroom trailers. Now the bill goes further by erasing requirements put into law years ago when Gov. Roy Barnes was still in office.
Apparently, some lawmakers no longer believe smaller classes are important in high school. Anyone out there think this decision is related to Gov. Sonny Perdue’s continued cuts in the school funding formula?
