Class sizes grow amid Florida's fiscal woes

Class sizes in Florida's public schools crept upward this year for the first time since 2002, a reversal fueled by Florida's worsening budget crisis.

Education Commissioner Eric Smith warned last month that more districts would struggle to comply with Florida's class-size law because of the poor economy.

The reports released this week by the Florida Department of Education show that to be true. Class sizes bumped up statewide, and more schools this year than last were in violation of the law because their classes were too big.

The education department had estimated it would cost the state nearly $400 million to get all classes in compliance by next August, a figure Central Florida administrators have already called too low. With progress from last year eroded, it could take even more money to shrink the state's class sizes.

Across Florida, 72 schools — including 29 in Orange — were too crowded and ended up in violation, the department's recent calculations show. That is up from 39 last year, though still just a fraction of Florida's 3,700 or so public schools.

The class-size law comes from a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2002. It is being phased in, with the requirement that by 2010 there be a cap on the number of students in any core class — no more than 18 in the youngest grades, 22 in the middle ones and 25 in high school classes.

The education department estimated districts would need 6,447 new teachers next school year, at a cost of more than $391 million, to fully implement the law's class-by-class provisions. Local administrators say those estimates are too low. Volusia County officials, for example, say they would need 369 new teachers next year, not the 221 the state estimated, to meet full class-size requirements.