Bill tells lawmakers to prioritize class size reduction

State lawmakers are under a court-ordered deadline to fully fund basic education and a new bill in Olympia declares class size reduction a top priority.

Washington ranks 47th in the nation in terms of teacher-student ratio. Researchers conclude reducing that ratio is the best way to improve student achievement.

“Class size is really the only consistently proven reform,” said Mary Howes, with the group Class Size Counts. “People constantly come up with new ideas but when you look at the research, especially when it’s done well, it’s class size over and over again that shows the strongest results.”

Howes said she would not have 30 kids at a birthday party, let alone in a classroom. “I think about educators trying to deal with potentially 30 8-year-olds in a classroom and they’re not just trying to manage a party, they’re trying to educate our children so, to me, it’s just common sense.”

A bill [HB 2589] introduced this week sets out a schedule for reducing class sizes by 2018.

“I believe we need to have something on the books that forces us to reduce class sizes,” said Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland.

The Superintendent of Public Instruction would raise sales tax and property tax to generate $7.5 billion for basic education. Goodman’s bill would prioritize class size and then figure out how to pay for it.

“Over the next two budget cycles, we want to be reducing class sizes down to what the research shows works and that’s about a $2 billion expenditure. The funding is something that we’re going to have to find anyway, we’re just saying we need to find it sooner.”

Goodman’s bill would eventually reduce class size in grads K-3 to 17 students, fewer in poorly funded schools. Higher grades would be limited to 25 students per classroom.

“They seem like pie-in-the-sky numbers to a lot of people [but] if we were able to get to those numbers, we would be about average across the nation,” said Howes. “It would not put us at the top.”

Howes said class size has to be part of the discussion on fully funding education.

“It’s about our children and about our future and we can do better and it’s just simply unacceptable to continue to let this problem get bigger and bigger.”

Goodman agrees.

“I’m saying that we can’t wait any longer and the time is now to find the funding to reduce class sizes throughout our public schools.”

The State Supreme Court, which ordered lawmakers to fully fund basic education, agrees, having told the legislature earlier this month that it’s moving too slowly in meeting its constitutional mandate.