Florida Schools on a Shoestring: Future of class size limits in doubt

This from the Orlando Sentinel:

The future of Florida's law that limits class sizes is in doubt as leaders in Tallahassee and throughout the state's school districts scramble to prepare for even darker clouds on the budget horizon next year.Legislators are reviving a money-saving proposal to relax the stringent class-size requirements, but only at the high school level.

The idea to tinker with the constitutional amendment that voters approved in 2002 - and politicians have fought to protect - is sure to rankle many. But amending the popular program is only one of several controversial money-saving proposals quietly being floated now."We've probably cut everywhere we could possibly cut," said Sen. Stephen Wise, R,-Tallahassee, chairman of the Senate's education appropriation committee.

So next year, he said, they'll be looking to defend only the things schools cannot function without - such as textbooks. Or teachers."It's going to be a 'do you want to die by hanging or shooting' kind of thing," Wise said...