In the Nov. 2 election, a referendum that would have given Florida public school officials more flexibility to accomplish class-size reductions was approved by a majority of voters but did not get the supermajority required to pass.
The rejection leaves many school officials — already dealing with the continuing economic downturn and declining revenue — scrambling to avoid fines for failing to implement smaller class sizes as required by a constitutional amendment passed in a 2002 referendum.
That amendment required districts to limit class size to 18 students for pre-K through third grade, 22 students for fourth through eighth grade, and 25 students for ninth through 12th grade. The phased-in reductions started in 2004 and were to be completed by 2011.
The costs for the state of the class-size limits are often cited by rating analysts. Since the law was enacted, the state and individual districts have sold billions of dollars of debt to build new classrooms.
But the amendment was passed after years of dramatic population growth. Since the economic downturn, Florida actually lost population and a slow return to growth is now predicted.
To deal with the year-over-year revenue losses due to declining property values at the school district level, lawmakers placed a referendum on the November ballot asking to allow schools to use the average numbers of students assigned to a teacher, instead of a specific number of students in each class per teacher.
Just over 54% of voters approved the amendment, but that fell short of the required 60%.
In light of the amendment’s failure, some districts are considering measures such as year-round schooling, rezoning school boundaries to adjust attendance, and more Internet-based classes.
