Tennessee House members killed legislation that could have allowed public school districts the ability to increase their maximum classroom sizes.
The Senate version of the legislation breezed through votes earlier this month but members of the House K-12 Subcommittee voted it down on a voice vote Tuesday.
Currently, Tennessee is one of the only states that has both a maximum class size and an average class size.
Legislation backed by Senator Jon Lundberg and Covington Representative Debra Moody would remove the requirements for districts to maintain average class sizes and allow districts to request a higher maximum for class sizes from the Tennessee Department of Education.
“When we give them local control, the community has an opportunity. If they see it’s not working well, hopefully the teachers will let their voices be heard. It just gets back to letting out locals have that decision making,” said Representative Moody.
The legislation has faced criticism from the union that represents the state’s teachers. Tennessee Education Association Assistant Executive Director Jim Wrye told House subcommittee members that the proposed changes would only hurt teachers.
“If we eliminate the averages then we believe, inevitably, we’ll be drifting towards larger and larger class sizes,” said Wrye. “The averages play a real role in maintaining what we want in a class size and eliminating those averages, we believe, will increase class sizes and that is not good for students and we don’t believe it’s good for teachers as well.”
The impact on teachers was a major point of opposition for Knoxville Representative Sam McKenzie. He worries just a few additional students will cause stress.
“I’ll say it this way. It sounds harsh but I think it’s going to be harsh that we’re tacking another five students into every classroom that they (teachers) have, it’s gonna be a mighty, mighty struggle,” said Representative McKenzie.
Another concern for the subcommittee was how larger classroom sizes might impact Tennessee’s literacy rates, retention, and quality of teaching.
Maryville Representative Bryan Richey questioned whether the change was worth making during a year when the General Assembly is discussing whether Tennessee is doing enough to support literacy for elementary school students.
“When we look at early education and how important that is, if we start overloading those teachers when we’re not getting enough one-on-one time, the local districts and LEAs (local education agencies) do have the capabilities right now to adjust whatever that class size is up to the average or the maximum size is. By doing away with that, I don’t see the positive when we’re having so many conversations right now that parents are concerned with their students being retained,” said Representative Richey.
