Opinion: Class size matters in every grade

George Hanna

My View

Here we go again.

Someone dug up a study that purports to show that smaller classes after about the third grade don't make any difference and, besides, smaller classes cost more and we we can't afford them, and yadda yadda yadda.

We've been through all this before. Studied it. Argued about it. Voted on it. Decided it.

But nothing is ever decided.

Now the Florida Council of 100 is recommending that the Florida Constitution be changed and says "it's vital that we all get behind it."

Vital, they say.

Well, they have their study and I have mine and I say class size matters at every grade.

Even if I couldn't point to a scholarly study, common sense tells me small classes are better.

The logic sort of overwhelms you.

If it were not so, why would Maclay School boast of a student/teacher ratio of 9 to 1? Or the FSU school and its ratio of 15 to 1?

Or consider the parents who hire a tutor to help their child pass algebra. That's the smallest class size possible: one to one. It works, too.

We can't afford the class sizes now mandated by the Florida Constitution? Oh, please.

Before the election the politicians use feel-good rhetoric like "investing in the future" but when the Legislature convenes we hear talk about not "throwing money at a problem."

What we really must do, they assure us, is cut taxes on our "hard-working taxpayers."

Not only do they not throw money at a problem, they cut the amount of money available to throw.

They come up with gimmicks like tax-free holidays, on which the sales tax is waived on — wait for it — school supplies. We are told that the tax-free holidays "save Florida families $37.9 million."

So let's take another look at the class size amendment we put in the Florida constitution.

Opponents are pushing for the issue to be on the ballot in 2018 because, they argue, "the taxpayers of Florida deserve nothing less."

What about the students? What do they deserve? A tax-free holiday?

George Hanna is retired and lives in Tallahassee. He can be reached at geralhanna@comcast.net. (And no, he is not related to the superintendent of schools.)