Effort to preserve class size reduction scores another legislative victory

CTA and a coalition of public school advocates have won a key victory at the Legislature in the ongoing battle to protect the state's class size reduction program. But the war is not over.

One bill to raise the cap on class size for millions of California students was defeated in a key legislative committee and three others were derailed. One measure was continuing to move forward at press time, and another was on the horizon.

The class size reduction program, which provides state incentive funding to districts that cap class size enrollment at 20 students in grades K-3, is under attack by school administrator groups who want to keep the additional state funds, but increase class sizes by at least 10 percent. CTA representatives say the bills would hurt student achievement and allow districts to spend fewer dollars in the classroom.

Administrators had complete flexibility in class size for years, say coalition representatives. The result was 35 to 40 students in every classroom.

All of the "flexibility" bills CTA is battling are similar. Most would raise the cap to 22 with a school-site average of 20 per class.

On April 30, the Assembly Education Committee voted down SB 10X, a measure by Sen. Byron Sher (D-11). Two other bills - AB 42 by Assembly Member Lynne Daucher (R-72) and AB 1129 by Assembly Education Chair Jackie Goldberg (D-45) - were withdrawn by their authors and will see no further action this legislative year.

On the same day, the Senate Education Committee approved a bill that CTA and its partners are working to kill. SB 556, also by Sen. Sher, could soon head to the Senate floor for a vote.

The Senate Education Committee was expected to give a comprehensive bill, SB 837 by Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-20), another hearing. In its current form, it would raise the class size cap to 25.

"Working with parents and community leaders, teachers have won the second round in the ongoing fight to protect small class sizes for California students," says CTA President Wayne Johnson. "It's outrageous that any state lawmaker would vote to dismantle the most proven school reform of the past seven years."

"It's ironic that now, when we have incredible research telling us that class size is one of most important programs we have had in decades, that lawmakers are talking about increasing class size," California State PTA Education Advocate Carol Kocivar told reporters at an April 29 coalition news conference coordinated by Californians for Smaller Class Sizes.

"The business community has long championed increasing student performance. Increasing class sizes would be a major step backward in this entire effort," said Aubry L. Stone, president and CEO of the California Black Chamber of Commerce. "We must take responsibility for what our state will look like in 2020. Who will be starting new businesses, and who will be our educated workforce?"

During April, hundreds of CTA member lobbyists from around the state came to Sacramento to tell lawmakers just how much of a difference the current class size reduction program has made in their students' achievement. Teachers and parents also wrote letters and made hundreds of calls to Assembly and Senate offices.

CTA members are being asked to keep up the pressure and urge their legislators to vote against SB 556 (Sher), SB 837 (Alarcon) and any other measure that would boost class sizes.

For updates on the progress of legislation or more information on how to contact your legislator, visit the CTA website [www.cta.org] and click on the Politics and Legislation.