Hard Choices Ahead for Florida over Class Size Limits
A majority of Florida's voters in last Tuesday's election favored easing the state's class-size limits, but it wasn't enough. A proposed amendment to the state's constitution failed to muster the necessary 60 percent vote to win approval, and this will leave state and local officials with some tough decisions, going forward.
Floridians originally approved the class-size limits back in 2002, and they've been popular among teachers and, as the election tallies suggest, among the state's voters. The measure on last Tuesday's ballot—Amendment 8—would have relaxed the mandate, which is scheduled to become tougher this year.
Many of the state's superintendents had hoped to ease the class-size caps. Those rules have posed a major challenge to districts around the state, which have made it difficult in some school systems for students to take the classes they need, and have reportedly forced districts to use teachers to lead classes outside their subject