Florida TaxWatch Pushes Smaller Schools, Not Smaller Classes

Florida TaxWatch released a study on Thursday showing smaller schools are better for education than smaller class sizes.

"Florida voters were tricked into buying smaller class sizes 14 years ago, with no research to back up the claims that this multibillion-dollar investment would improve learning outcomes for our students," said Dominic Calabro, the president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch, on Thursday. "This TaxWatch research highlights how that investment might be better utilized in the future to really make a difference in the lives of Florida students."

The report insists students perform better in smaller schools instead of just smaller classes, noting that elementary and middle schools in the Sunshine State have the highest enrollments in the nation on average and high schools have twice the enrollment of the national average.

Bob Nave, the director of the Florida TaxWatch Center for Educational Performance and Accountability, said the state constitutional amendment from 2002 limiting class size was not helping education.

"The repeal of the school size limits in favor of class size limits is a good example of a popular initiative trumping a sound research-based public policy," said Nave. "Florida voters must recognize that the 2002 constitutional amendment to limit class sizes has failed to produce the expected gains in student achievement. Investing that $30 billion in measures that have empirically proven to improve student achievement would have been a better investment in public education."

The report can be readhere.