In the November election, Florida voters will have the opportunity to consider a constitutional amendment that would mandate an upper limit on class sizes in public schools. If the amendment passes, class sizes would be reduced beginning in the 2003-04 school year until by 2010, classes for third graders and below would be no larger than 18 students, classes for fourth through eighth graders would be no larger than 22 students, and classes for grades nine through twelve would not exceed 25 students. The merits of mandating smaller class sizes is the main issue, and justly so, but a secondary issue is the cost of reducing class sizes. Smaller class sizes mean more teachers, more classrooms, and more overhead expenses to serve the same students. The state’s economists estimate that to implement this amendment would require the construction of almost 30,000 additional classrooms and the hiring of more than 31,000 additional teachers. The cost of passing this constitutional amendment would exceed $3 billion a year in additional educational expenditures.
