School Board Approves Class Size Increase

The state's public schools can add more students to their classes under a measure passed by the state school board today. The board unanimously passed a temporary one-year boost to the state-mandated class size limit. The move is designed to help Georgia's 180 school districts save up to $200-million on the cost for hiring new teachers, given declining state funding.

The statewide waiver will add two students to most classes up through eighth grade for the 2009-10 school year. It does not apply to special education, English as a second language, fine arts and foreign language classrooms. The number of students in core high school classes will not change--remaining at 32 students.

The school Board today also approved Gwinnett County as the first district in Georgia to take advantage of "flexibility contracts". The move allows the largest district in Georgia to operate free of most state education laws and implement new methods for improving student achievement.

Augusta educators to increase class size to cope with teacher shortage

Officials in eastern Georgia are struggling with more students per classroom in some schools.

School administrators in Augusta say budget cuts have caused a shortage of teachers. Because of that, they are seeking permission to expand class sizes in 62 elementary classrooms. It's a problem that school systems across the state have struggled with.

Barbara Pulliam is a school board member in Richmond County. She is also a retired teacher. She opposes efforts to increase class size:

"Small classes not only promote better learning. It eliminates discipline problems. Small classes [are] the answer to a lot of the problems that we're having."

School officials say their request is small: 62 out of 813 classrooms. The matter now goes before state education officials.

House would let class sizes grow

The Georgia House has voted to relax limits on high school class sizes. Without this leeway, “We’d force the systems to go to 28 [students] without any flexibility,” said House Education Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth). “Immediately, they’d have to have extra classrooms, find extra teachers. We have not provided funds locally for this.”

The bill, as passed, would allow up to 32 students in most high school academic classes.

Democrats called the bill hypocritical. Rep. Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta) recalled the “Sonny Did” commercials from Gov. Sonny Perdue’s re-election campaign.

“For too long, no one did enough to improve education in Georgia, until Sonny did,” she quoted. “Test scores are going up and class sizes are going down. That’s what Sonny did. Why would we ever go back?”

The bill still needs Senate approval.