Bloated by class-size reduction edicts, Florida's teaching force grew by a larger percentage than any other state's between 2003 and 2009 -- even though student enrollment inched up just 1.2 percent during that period.
To contain future personnel and related costs, which Florida TaxWatch estimated at a whopping $40 billion over the next 10 years, the 2011 Legislature scaled back the class-size mandates.
Lawmakers expect their modest move will shave expenses some $70 million a year by giving schools a bit more flexibility in meeting rigid class-size reduction formulas.
The Legislature acted five months after Florida voters narrowly failed to pass a constitutional amendment that would have frozen the original class-size reduction law passed in 2002. Though the 2010 measure won 54.5 percent of the vote -- 2 percentage points more than the 2002 amendment received -- a subsequent change in amendment law had raised the passage requirement to 60 percent.
Florida TaxWatch estimates that the state has spent $19 billion to implement class-size reduction programs. The lion's share of the cost was for teacher hiring.
From 2003-2009 (the latest year for which data were available), Florida's teaching ranks swelled to 186,359, a 28.6 percent increase that was the biggest in the nation.
Only two other states boosted hires by more than 20 percent: Georgia, (+22.3 percent) and Arkansas (+20.4 percent).
At the same time, Florida's student enrollmentwent up only 1.2 percent.
The amount per-pupil the state spent just on compensation climbed 27.9 percent to $6,912, according to a state-by-state breakdown provided by the Education Intelligence Agency, a Sacramento, Calif.-based research center.
With the next phase of Florida's class-size reduction rules set to extend from campus averages to individual classrooms, necessitating the hiring of still more teachers, budget-conscious legislators said they had to act.
Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, called for a "rational" class-size law that provided more flexibility to campuses while exempting noncore subjects.
Amid conflicting educational data on the scholastic value of class-size reduction programs, the House and Senate passed the relief measure by wide margins.
The Florida Education Association -- which collects union dues from teachers and other school staff -- argued that the action reneged on the voters' will. But lawmakers said the 2002 constitutional amendment gave the Legislature latitude in determining how to implement the law.
Because they could not simply freeze the class-size program -- as the failed Amendment 8 would have done last year -- lawmakers had to tinker around the margins.
Downsizing the list of "core curriculum" classes covered by the class-size umbrella from 849 to 288, lawmakers also approved revised rules allowing districts to exceed class-size limits by up to four students in K-3 and five students in grades 4-12.
If Amendment 8 had passed last year, and class-size rules had been halted in their tracks, Florida TaxWatch estimated that the state would have saved $1 billion over the next decade.
The Legislature aimed to further soften the fiscal blow by passing laws expanding the establishment of charter schools. These publicly funded but locally operated campuses help serve as a relief valve for families seeking alternatives to conventional public schools.
Teachers at charters are compensated through independently negotiated contracts and are not generally part of any government collective-bargaining agreement.
Earlier, Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, warned that unless changes were made to "right-size" class-size rules, the state and its local districts would be forced to spend millions more on new teacher hires.
"If we don't create flexibility, we will have rezoning. We will have busing all over the state of Florida," he added.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
