After a tense debate, the Senate voted Thursday to give parents and educators limited flexibility in implementing state class-size mandates.
Senate Joint Resolution 2 maintains the class-size limits approved by voters in 2002 and allows those limits to continue to be calculated on a school average, as is now the case.
The resolution, sponsored mainly by Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, passed the Senate 26-10. The vote closely followed party lines and the debate largely followed party arguments, with one notable exception.
As a proposed constitutional amendment, it needed to pass the Senate by a 60 percent majority. It now goes to the House, where it will also need to pass with a 60 percent majority before it can be added to the November ballot.
"Since 2002, the people of Florida have invested nearly $16 billion to reduce class sizes," said Gaetz. "Nearly 6,000 new classrooms have been built and 21,000 more teachers have been hired. This bill will maintain all of those gains. What we want to avoid is the forced busing, rezoning and disruption in student learning that school districts tell us would occur if our local schools are forced to adhere to inflexible, per-class caps."
The 2002 constitutional amendment required that class sizes from pre-kindergarten through third grade could have no more than 18 students; fourth-grade through eighth-grade classrooms, no more than 22 students; and ninth grade through 12th grade, no more than 25 students.
The amendment calls for class sizes to be calculated at the classroom level, as opposed to the schoolwide average as they are now, starting in the fall.
Gaetzs amendment requires that schools continue to calculate class size on a schoolwide average.
It would stipulate that no more than 21 students be assigned to pre-kindergarten to third-grade classrooms; no more than 27 students be assigned to fourth through eighth-grade classrooms; and no more than 30 to high school classrooms.
Republicans rallied around the chorus that the amendment gave local officials more flexibility in managing classsrooms and resources.
Thats all theyre asking for, said Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville. Give us the flexibility.
Democrats argued that the voters have spoken. Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, told the chamber that there was no need for a constitutional change. Senators could achieve just as much, he said, with a statutory amendment.
In an impassioned speech, Sen. Alex Villalobos of Miami -- the only Republican to oppose the bill -- encouraged members of the chamber to follow his lead. I really believe that we have no higher calling than to do what is best for our kid, he said.
Afterward, he said that his comments were directed at no party in particular. "(They were) directed at anybody trying to overturn the will of the people, he said.
Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel is sponsoring the House Companion to SJR 2.
