Teachers who want to see class size reduction expanded can help make it happen by working for passage of the 2004 school facilities bond.
The $12.3 billion Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2004, which will appear on the March 2004 ballot, is the much-needed "second half" of Proposition 47, which voters passed in 2002.
Sponsored by Californians for Accountability and Better Schools - a coalition of taxpayers, parents, seniors, educators, builders, labor and businesses that includes CTA and Californians for Higher Education - it would provide funds to build new school facilities, and repair and upgrade existing school sites.
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Willie James tries to screen out distractions and focus on what his teacher is saying in his overcrowded third-grade class at Washington Elementary in Riverside. The facilities bond on the March 2004 ballot would include money to alleviate overcrowding and accommodate an influx of new students. |
The Office of Public School Construction estimates that nearly 50,000 new classrooms will be needed over the next few years to relieve overcrowding and accommodate new students. Prop. 47 funds started the process; the 2004 facilities bond will provide the rest.
"This measure is every bit as important as Prop. 47," says CTA President Wayne Johnson. "We must continue the work we started."
In addition to fixing leaky roofs, repairing broken bathrooms, installing heating and air conditioning, and upgrading college laboratories, the bond money would free up space for class size reduction.
The lack of facilities was one of the main reasons some districts could not fully participate in class size reduction when the state made the money available at CTA's suggestion in 1996. They were "landlocked" with no place to expand, or had maxed out their options for portables, double sessions and multiple tracks.
For example, Garden Grove and Downey implemented class size reduction in grades 1-3, but not in kindergarten.
It was a space issue, says Dave Brown, president of the Garden Grove Education Association.
"The only way we could have accommodated class size reduction at some schools would have been to go year-round, and the district didn't want to go there."
"We have class size reduction in grades 1-3, which we are going to maintain to the best of our ability," says Elizabeth Marroquin, president of the Downey Education Association. "But we are landlocked.
"To add any more classes we're going to have to go up. We're going to have to add second stories at all levels - elementary, middle and high school."
Downey voters have approved a local school bond, but cannot start construction without matching funds from the state. The facilities bond would provide the matching funds for Downey and other districts in a similar position.
Fullerton did not have not enough room for class size reduction in third grade, says Fullerton Elementary Teachers Association President Barbara Moore. Just about every inch of usable space has already been claimed by portable classrooms for class size reduction in K-2 classes.
Anaheim, perhaps the most overcrowded school district in the state, was only able to put class size reduction in place in grades 1 and 2. Kindergarten classes now have about 30 children each, and third grade has 32 students to each teacher, says Carol Reinbolt, president of the Anaheim Elementary Education Association.
Even achieving class size reduction in first and second grade was a challenge in Anaheim. It required "staggered sessions" beginning at different times of the day. During the "overlap" between the two sessions, two teachers and 40 students are housed in the same room for as much as two hours.
More than 1 million California school children are trying to get an education in overcrowded, deteriorating classrooms and temporary trailers.
In fact, California has more students per class than any other state except Utah.
A safe, uncrowded classroom where children can get more one-on-one attention is an essential component of school reform, say sponsors of the 2004 bond measure.
For information on helping to pass the 2004 facilities bond, contact CTA's Governmental Relations Department at (916) 442-5895 or visit the website [www.CTA.org].
