Yet during the Senate hearings for Education Secretary designee Miguel Cardona, Mitt Romney took his allotted time to attack the entire goal of lowering class size. As the Salt Lake Tribune noted, he “did not mention state he now represents. Utah has the largest average elementary school class sizes in the country & has for years. Some studies have shown a correlation between class size and learning, particularly among younger students. “
In some Utah schools, in an ordinary year, class sizes can be as large as forty kids per class.
Nor did Romney mention the fact that he attended the elite Cranbrook Academy in Michigan , which has average class sizes of 14 , or that he sent his sons to Belmont Hill School in Massachusetts, with average class sizes of 12.
Instead, in his comments, he referred to a McKinsey study from 2007 that pointed out that some high-performing nations like South Korea and Singapore have large classes. But these sorts of studies, including those from the OECD, too often omit two key factors:
Families in these nations spend a huge amount of their annual income on private tutoring programs. In 2010, South Korean families spent 10.7% of average household income on private tutoring, and amount has risen since then. South Korean students spend so much time in these private evening programs that they take pillows to help them sleep at their desks. Moreover, many of these nations like South Korea are making an effort to lower the class size in their schools.
There are several other Mckinsey reports that cite the value of smaller classes. See this 2010 McKinsey report which points out that “Research suggests, for example, that poor CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Mitt Romney, time to educate yourself on class size!
