DFLers propose more money to reduce class sizes
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Four afternoons a week, teacher Julie Kavaloski works with 36 third graders in her classroom at Carver Elementary School in Maplewood. The rest of the time she teaches 32 students. Either way, Kavaloski says having that many students interferes with her ability to teach effectively.
"The noise, the distractions, the in and out, constantly managing behaviors," says Kavaloski. "When I'm saying, 'Please stop doing this, please stop doing that,' I'm not teaching. If I'm not teaching, kids aren't learning. And that's really the issue here."
DFL legislators used Kavaloski's classroom as a backdrop to announce their plan to shrink class sizes throughout the state. Last year's increase in state education funding helped school districts cover rising energy and operational costs. Few were able to hire more teachers and lower class sizes.
"We've reached a tipping point and something needs to be done," says Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis.
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Hornstein is the author of the DFL class size bill. Under the proposed incentive program, school districts that lower class size in grades kindgergarten through 6 would get an extra $500 per elementary student in state funding.
The target would be 20 or fewer students in kindergarten through third grade, and 25 or fewer students in fourth through sixth grade. The incentive would drop to $100 per student above sixth grade, with a 28-student target in English, math science and social studies classrooms.
"There is a direct relationship between student achievement and lower class size. There is a direct relationship between getting the achievement gap down, as well as lowering class size," says Hornstein. "Study after study proves it. This is how we address the achievement gap question."
Hornstein says the incentive program would require an initial state investment of $300 million. Potential funding sources include the state's $317 million Tax Relief Account and the projected $88 million budget surplus.
Republican House Speaker Steve Sviggum says there are significant holes and questions in the DFL plan. He says Democrats want to tap one-time tax relief money to create a permanent program. Sviggum prefers a plan to require school districts to spend 70 percent of their state funding on classroom instruction.
"It would make sense to me, and I think it would make sense to the general public, that if you want more money in the classroom, if you want to make sure that's where the money goes -- some type of a dictation, some type of a goal, some type of a mandate that 70 percent goes into the classroom for classroom teachers, for students, for textbooks, aides -- reducing class size would be a good thing. It would be a good accountability measure," says Sviggum.
Despite Sviggum's support, the Republican-backed, 70 percent bill got off to a rough start last week. The House Education Policy and Reform Committee voted 15-14 to send the bill to the House floor without a recommendation.
Critics point out that districts already spend an average of 69 percent of funding on classrooms. The full House is scheduled to vote on the 70 percent requirement Thursday. Committee hearings have not yet been scheduled for the DFL class-size plan.
