Florida legislators propose public vote to ease class-size limits

FromThe Tallahassee Democrat: Florida voters would get a chance to "right size the class size" next November, under a constitutional amendment endorsed by two legislative leaders and many education administrators, teachers and parents. But Democrats and a major state teachers union have signaled that they will fight any attempt at relaxing classroom student limits in public schools. JANUARY 2010...from The Miami Herald: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who in the past has opposed tinkering with the state class-size mandates, wants voters to reconsider their 2002 vote in favor of smaller classes. Crist says he now supports essentially freezing class size limits where they are now -- with mandated caps calculated as school-wide averages. Many educators say going to the next phase -- caps for every classroom, beginning next school year -- would cost too much, create problems with student enrollment and do little to improve student achievement.