California can’t afford anymore class

FLO MARTIN

Columnist Steve Smith, one of the Daily Pilot’s best, suggested in

“The romantic notion of turning off the TV,” April 17 that a class of

38 non-television-viewing children would be more manageable than a

class of 30 television viewers. I just about croaked. A class of 30

in California, you say? Not even close. Try more like 40-plus.

I have taught many classes with more than 40, mostly high school

freshmen. Classroom management was not easy. My class was literally

“standing room only” until the janitors brought more chairs. Tuesday,

a student teacher at Cal State Fullerton told me he is teaching

Spanish classes that range from 37 to 42 pupils. His students didn’t

have enough chairs and, even now some still don’t have a textbook.

Unreal. So what is the problem?

The answer is simple: money, as in funding, as in voter

priorities. States that allocate big bucks, relatively speaking, have

lower class sizes. California voters are misers when spending on

school kids. Stan Karp writes in an article titled “Money, Schools

and Justice,” published on the Rethinking Schools Online website that

“[we see] a dramatic decline in spending on schools in California

relative to other states. In the 1960s, California was fifth in

per-pupil spending; by the end of the 1990s it was 30th, and well

below the national average. Class size in California is now among the

highest in the nation.”

Last year, one of the top spenders nationally, Loudoun County

Public Schools in Virginia, allocated $9,683 for each pupil. The

average class size in the district was 22.5 at the elementary, 21.1

at the middle school level and 26.6 at the high school level. Similar

in student population and number of schools, the California district

in which I taught has an average of 29 students in each classroom.

All teachers know that size counts. “Education World” reports: “In

March [1999], the Department of Education released ‘Reducing Class

Size, What Do We Know?’ That report summarized substantial research

showing that class size reduction in the early grades leads to higher

student achievement in reading and math when class size is reduced to

15-20 students. The benefits of smaller classes are greatest for

disadvantaged and minority students.”

Speaking of disadvantaged and minority students, in 1999, the Los

Angeles Almanac listed the annual expenditure per pupil of all Los

Angeles schools. The Los Angeles average per pupil per year was

$5,452, which was 4.4% lower than the California state average.

Unlike affluent Newport-Mesa folks, these Southland families don’t

have the big bucks and tax-exempt foundations to help supplement

their kids’ education.

The background information for a Public Broadcasting Station show

called “School Funding” indicates that California -- one of the

richest states -- spent just under 4% of per capita income on school

children, making the state fourth from last in that category. In

2002, the California average was just more than $7,000, which ranked

us 35th out of all 50 states. Then there’s little New Jersey, which

is ranked first of all the states, spending more than $10,000 per

pupil every year. The numbers really speak for themselves. California

voters choose mediocre funding for their schools.

On the other hand, California voters love their correctional or

prison system. We spend over $21,400 a year for every prisoner. That

figures out to about $65 a day for a criminal who has to do time in

jail. Compare that to $14 a day for a school kid, whose future is at

stake. These 14 measly dollars pay for everything -- school supplies,

desks, equipment, teachers, administrators, school facilities, sport

programs and much, much more. What a difference. Maybe if we spent

just $10 more on a child, we would have to deal with fewer prisoners

and spend much less on the prisons. Sounds cost-effective to me.

Back to class size. “EdFacts Online” states: “In 2001-02,

California schools had more students per teacher than all other

states except two and almost five students more than the U.S.

average. The pupil-teacher ratio, which is the number of students

enrolled per full-time equivalent teacher, gives an indication of

class size. The ratio in California was 20.8 students per teacher in

contrast to the U.S. average of 15.9. Only Utah at 21.1 students per teacher, and Arizona at 21.0, exceeded California, while Vermont had

the smallest ratio at 11.5.”

Steve Smith, spare us. We don’t want our classes to get even

bigger. No, not 38. Not even 30. Enough is enough.

* FLO MARTIN is a Costa Mesa resident and retired high school

teacher who lectures part-time at Cal State Fullerton in the Foreign

Language Education program and supervises student teachers in their

classrooms.