Duval Patrick Wants Communities to Build Schools

Oh, that's not what he said, but that's the result. What he said:

Patrick also proposes reducing class sizes in elementary grades, an idea pushed by teachers unions and parents. The state's average ratio of students to teachers is 13 to 1, though elementary class sizes are as high as 27 in some schools, according to a recent school funding lawsuit.

``I haven't met an educator who thinks that class size doesn't matter, particularly in the early grades," Patrick said in a telephone interview with the Globe.

Shocking that the teachers union would support hiring more teachers, isn't it. But seriously, my kids are in school. Most of the classrooms in most of the schools in our area are filled and this after we built a whole new building. To actually reduce class size means adding more class rooms. So, the cost isn't simply in hiring more teachers, but in building more schools. Where's that money coming from? Oh, wait, I know. Duval Patrick is probably consulting with Mike Dukakis right now on the best approach to implement a new "temporary" tax on top of the old "temporary" tax that he refuses to roll back.
That's my opinion, the Globe quotes some experts:

Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based research organization, estimates that it would cost Massachusetts $140 million a year to reduce class size from 20 students per teacher to 19 students per teacher. Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, said reducing class sizes is one of the more expensive ways to improve student achievement.

``It does not address the question of teacher quality, which is key," he said of the plan. ``There are less expensive ways of . . . having an impact on student achievement."

But of course, our man Patrick hasn't actually put out many details (gee, anyone see a trend here).

Patrick said yesterday he did not yet have a cost estimate for the program, but it probably couldn't be implemented immediately because the state would first have to study where smaller classes are needed and whether there is space to accommodate them.

Even if lawmakers warm to a candidate's proposals, the tight budget scenario makes it unlikely they could spend much more than they are now, said Michael J. Widmer , president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

``The reality is that whatever we do that significantly expands the education arena is going to be costly," Widmer said.

``We couldn't do all of the things. We'd have to pick one, if it's of any scale."

And all Kerry Heally is proposing is one added program of modest size (equivalent to one of Patricks many proposals) to keep students in school until they're 18 in order to try to reduce the drop-out rate. Probably won't work that well, but it sounds a lot safer than what Patrick is proposing.
Elect Kerry Healey