By Duane Campbell
The Sac City Unified district has decided to reduce class
sizes in k-3 classes down to a maximum of 24 students for the fall of
2016, a good decision and a long overdue
decision according to an article by Loretta Kalb in the Tuesday Sacramento Bee .
Community groups such as the Communities Priorities
Coalition, parents groups, and the teachers union (SCTA) have been pressuring
the district to make this decision for over two years.
The district has received over $67 million in additional
funding since 2013 as a result of the economy recovering from the Great
Recession and Prop. 30 ballot
measure. The district receives some $237 million in revenues from
the change in state policy known as the Local Control Funding ( LCFF) that requires
that this revenue be spent on specific populations, low income, English Learners, foster children,
and Special Education. This year the funds have already been allocated to purposes
other than class size reduction by the administration and the School Board in spite of the community demands to spend the funds on class size reduction.
Watching the Board, it is often difficult to tell who or what body is making decisions on this significant new LCFF funding .
Class sizes in Sacramento grew significantly during the
Great Recession and teachers were dismissed while new teachers not hired.
The welcome decision
to reduce k-12 class size back toward the national average will require the hiring of some 100 new
teachers. SCUSD and other local
districts will have difficulty recruiting credentialed teachers as the number
of students studying to become teachers has fallen during the economic crisis.
