Parents, Teachers Work to Protect Class Size Reduction

Coalition Forms

Californians for Smaller Class Sizes -- a growing coalition of groups, including CTA - is hard at work to protect the state's most popular and effective education reform, class-size reduction.

Californians for Smaller Class Sizes also includes California State PTA, the California Association for the Education of Young Children, the California Black Chamber of Commerce, the National Coalition of Hispanic Organizations, People for the American Way (PFAW), the Black American Political Association of California (BAPAC), Madres Del Este De Los Angeles (Mothers of East Los Angeles), Industrial Areas Foundation, the Gray Panthers of Long Beach, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

The class size program is under attack by legislation - pushed by school administrators - that would allow school districts to cram more students into classrooms, while keeping $906 per student in incentive money.

The funds are earmarked under current law to ensure that classes have no more than 20 students in them, but several pending CTA-opposed bills would allow districts to cram at least 10% more students into each classroom.

A leading measure, CTA-opposed AB 42 by Assembly Member Lynn Daucher (R-Brea), in its original form would have let districts force two more students into these classrooms. The Assembly Education Committee recently decided to use the measure as the vehicle for any changes in class-size caps. Two other lawmakers, Assembly Members Bill Maze (R-Visalia) and Tim Leslie (R-Roseville), have already melded their measures into the bill and signed on as co-authors. It is expected that the battle over AB 42 will become the key one deciding the short-term fate of class-size reduction efforts.

Assembly Member Daucher also made two other major changes to her measure. The first amendment converts the measure into an "urgency" bill that would take effect as soon as enacted. To gain approval with an "urgency" clause, a bill needs a two-thirds vote of both houses. The second amendment limits the bill's effective date to three years. If approved, the bill would "sunset" in 2006.

CTA and its coalition partners are continuing to mobilize their members in opposition to AB 42 and other bills that would allow more students to be jammed into these classrooms. The Assembly panel is expected to take up AB 42 as soon as April 23.

Among the other class-size measures pending in the legislature are:

AB 1477, by Assembly Member George Nakano (D-Torrance). Thus far, it is a "technical or spot" bill without a great deal of detail.

SB 837, by Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Los Angeles). Currently, this measure would allow districts to jam as many as 25 students in "reduced-sized" classes. It is awaiting a hearing in its first policy committee, Senate.

SB 10x, by Sen. Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto). It would increase the class size cap by two students, to 22. The measure has gained Senate approval and will eventually head to the Assembly Education Committee. A second Sher measure, SB 556, is still in "spot bill" form and is pending in the Senate.

CTA Members:
Continue contacting members of the Assembly Education Committee. Tell them why it is so important to defeat CTA-opposed AB 42 - and any other forthcoming bills - that would allow districts to jam more students in classrooms that are already the most overcrowded in the nation. Remind lawmakers that "flexibility" is a school district administrators' code word for diverting money from classrooms to other programs administrators favor.

Remind your lawmakers that:

• Maintaining a 20:1 cap is crucial to ensure that students receive the individual attention they need.
• The CTA-opposed proposals will allow districts to keep the additional money they are receiving from the state (about $906 per student). It will not save the state a cent or help it bridge a looming $35 billion budget deficit.
• The bills go counter to the voters' preference. Voters by a more than 70% margin view class size reduction favorably, as one of the most effective education reforms over the past seven years.
  

Serving on the Assembly Education Committee are the following lawmakers: