Reply to Fairfax County: McLean Citizens Association demands smaller class sizes

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]FCPS says that the cost of reducing the elementary class size  formula by just .5 student (from 26.75 to 26.25) would be $7.0 million. See page 14 of the attached.

http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/9T8AWB70B1D4/$file/FY2016Responses%20for%20Posting1-28-15.pdf

I imagine this group is not proposing a tax increase, so the funds for this proposal will have to be cut from somewhere else in the budget. Do they actually identify where the money would come from, or is this just a political "we should get more without having to make any hard decisions" deal?[/quote]

Yes, in a roundabout way, they explain where the savings will come from. The resolution is that no elementary class should be smaller than 21 students. So, that is where savings will come from. [/quote]

The resolution is not that no class should be smaller than 21 students. It's that no school should have an average of less than 21 students. There's a big difference. I agree the delta needs to be a little larger like from 20-25, but it's not true that McLean is advocating for all title one schools to be 21 students or greater. At an average of 25, most upper level schools still have a majority of classes around 28 students. It's just that one grade might be smaller. The VA state law says school averages should be 24:1 in grades 1-3, 25:1 in grades 4-6, and 24:1 in English classes.[/quote]

Most elementary schools in FCPS have an average class size of under 25 students. I need to put all of this in my own spreadsheet, but I counted (very quickly - nothing too scientific) less than 15 schools that have an average of over 25, but more than 25 schools that have an average of less than 21 students per class.

http://www.fcps.edu/it/studentreporting/documents/ElmClassSizeAvg2014.pdf

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