The Pajaro Valley Unified School District has long been proud of its small kindergarten and elementary school classes, with no more than 20 students per teacher.
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District has long been proud of its small kindergarten and elementary school classes, with no more than 20 students per teacher. Now that it has been forced to cut $14 million from its budget, the school district is preparing for larger classes, with 30 or more students per teacher. Still, a new set of regulations for the class-size reduction program will enable to the schools to keep at least 70 percent of their state funding. Only the first and second grades will be keeping their 20 to 1 teacher to student ratio.
In related news, California may be on the brink of having to choose between a 2006 law that prohibits tying teacher performance evaluation to test scores and badly needed federal dollars. Although the law has long been supported by the state’s powerful teachers unions, federal officials led by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have indicated that it could result in California being disqualified from receiving a portion of $4.35 billion in federal stimulus funding earmarked for education. Instead, the money could go to other states, leaving California’s coffers dry.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell has argued that the federal government does not understand the intent of the law, which is local control. But State Senator Joe Simitian, who wrote the bill, now concedes that “the potential cost to California is millions and millions of dollars.” Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the San Jose Mercury News.
