Delay Urged in Expanding Class-Size Reduction

The cost of California’s much-discussed class-size reduction effort could be dramatically reduced--and brought in line with state funding--with relatively minor changes such as allowing an additional pupil or two in some classes, according to a report issued Wednesday by the state legislative analyst’s office.

Nonetheless, the report says that the difficulties of finding enough classrooms and qualified teachers are so great in some areas that the state ought to put off further expansion of the enormously popular--but as yet unproven--program.

The independent report used a survey of 150 California school districts to determine the status of the state’s $1-billion wager that having classes with only 20 students in three primary grades will help youngsters read and calculate better.

Gov. Pete Wilson, state Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin and some legislative leaders want to add the fourth grade to the three grades involved this year.

But Eastin and some legislators also side with school administrators who worry that the $666 per pupil in funding proposed by Wilson does not cover the true costs of the program, meaning that school districts are skimping elsewhere to make it work. They say the actual cost is closer to $800 per pupil.

The report gave ammunition to both sides in that debate. On the one hand, it said that school districts are spending about $770 per pupil for extra teachers, custodians, books and other costs created as new classes are added to achieve 20-student classes. On the other hand, it said those costs could be reduced to below what Wilson is proposing if school districts were allowed to maintain merely an average of 20 pupils--but have as many as 22 pupils in some classes--and still qualify for the extra state funding.

That proposal brought a mixed response. Some educators warned that lifting the cap could undermine support for the program. Others said they welcomed the proposed flexibility, but worried that it would not produce the financial windfall anticipated by the analyst’s report.

“I’d be reluctant on a policy basis to do anything that allows us to go over 20 pupils,” said Mark Slavkin, a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. “We’ve waited this long to get to 20 to 1, and this would start us down a slippery slope in the name of flexibility.”

But others said the absolute limit on the number of pupils in a classroom has created absurd situations. A school in Camarillo, for example, was faced with the loss of funding when one new student moved to the area. In the end--after considerable fretting by administrators--the child was enrolled in another school.

“If the parents hadn’t decided to make the change with their child, we would have probably lost the funding and had to go over 20 at that school,” said Shirley Carpenter, superintendent of the Pleasant Valley elementary school district.

Dennis Smith, superintendent of the Irvine Unified School District, also supports eliminating the absolute cap on the number of students in primary grade classrooms.

“What we’re having to do in some situations is add a class where we don’t need one,” Smith said. “But in other instances, we’re not able to accept a student in their home area.”’

To allow for such uncertainties, Irvine and many school districts across the state are keeping enrollments below even the 20 set by the state. The report issued Wednesday, in fact, said the average number of pupils in classes participating in the program is below 19, which makes the program far more costly than it would be otherwise.

Smith, who said the program is costing Irvine nearly $900 per pupil, was one of the educators skeptical that the solution proposed in the report would produce the anticipated financial windfall.

“We’re still underfunded at $650 a child,” Smith said. “Eight hundred dollars is where we need to be.”

Some school districts, according to the report, are spending as much as $1,000 per pupil.

Bob Wells, assistant executive director of the Assn. of California School Administrators, said the cost issues are serious and, as the report noted, will only get worse in future years as newly hired teachers move up the salary schedule.

“This program has the potential within two or three years to bankrupt school districts,” Wells said. “It’s happy talk to think about going to a fourth grade . . . but it’s not very realistic, and I think we’re a lot better off finishing this job and doing it right before we push on.”

Aside from the cost issue, the report says 24% of the 18,400 teachers hired to reduce class sizes this year lack credentials. It also says that creating enough classrooms to house those additional teachers has forced the elimination of libraries, computer labs and day-care rooms at many schools.

In addition, now that schools have used every nook and cranny for newly created classes, they face the added expense of constructing new facilities or purchasing thousands of portable buildings, the report said.

“The evidence is clear that we’ve put a lot of pressure on teacher supply, and we need to let schools that haven’t fully implemented the existing program to catch up,” said Paul Warren, education director for the politically neutral analyst’s office.

Expanding the program further would worsen those problems, he said, and many districts--including Los Angeles Unified and many in Orange County--might not be willing, or able, to take part.

Los Angeles Assistant Supt. Gordon Wohlers said it would cost that district $60 million or more just to buy portable classrooms to expand the program to kindergarten and third grade. Even then, many more students would have to ride buses to get to those classrooms because they could not be located at already jammed campuses close to their homes.

“As a practical matter, under the current rules, we would have a very difficult if not impossible time economically and housing-wise, of expanding our class-size reduction program,” Wohlers said.

Gov. Wilson, however, doesn’t plan to ease off, spokesman Dan Edwards said Wednesday. Wilson is sensitive to the difficulties of making the program work and is addressing them, he said.

This week, Edwards said, the governor signed legislation making it easier for districts to hire retired teachers for temporary duty or to create or expand teacher internship programs. Wilson also supports a bond issue in 1998 that would help pay for new classrooms.

Edwards said the governor may support amendments to the class-size reduction program to give school districts more flexibility, as suggested by the report.

But Wilson still wants to see smaller classes through the third grade, his spokesman said, explaining that, “If we don’t move on it now, it’s likely it will get lost in the shuffle.”

Eastin agreed. “When you are a policymaker and a leader, your job is to lead and make a difference and I think we ought to press on,” she said.

State Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael), however, agreed with the legislative analyst that caution is warranted. “We are throwing a billion dollars around without the slightest idea of what we’re buying,” he said. “I’m convinced there’s going to be some benefit, but I can’t relate that benefit to what it’s costing.”

Times staff writers Nick Anderson and Kate Folmar and correspondent Regina Hong contributed to this story.