Wilson Offers More Funds for Smaller Classes

Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday issued what amounts to a challenge to school officials already bone-weary from battle: He proposed kicking in half a billion dollars to expand the state’s already ambitious push to shrink the size of primary grade classes, a program that has heartened parents but posed logistical headaches for schools throughout the state.

Speaking at a Long Beach elementary school, Wilson acknowledged the heroic efforts that some school districts have made to find enough space--in libraries, teacher lounges, computer rooms and portable buildings--for the additional classrooms needed for this year’s program to reduce the size of classes in three grades to 20 pupils.

But now is the time, he said, to reduce class sizes from kindergarten through third grade statewide.

“Not just three of the grades but all four grades will benefit from this revolution in the classroom,” Wilson said at Frances Willard Elementary School. “We have the resources to do it, schools have demonstrated the will to make it happen, and there is no reason to hold back and every reason to move forward.”

But many Orange County school officials said they wished that new money instead would go to the underfunded program already started. Educators said the current state funding for class reductions in up to three grade levels pays only about 30% of the real costs. Expanding the program to include four grades is only going to further tap their own funds, they said.

Slashing classes from 29 to 20 students enables teachers to give students more individual attention, hopefully improving their ability to read and do math. But for each two classes trimmed like that, districts have to create a new classroom and hire a new teacher.

About half of Orange County’s 24 elementary school districts were able take full advantage of this year’s program by cutting class sizes at three grade levels. Most of the remaining districts barely could do so in the first grade.

Even at Capistrano Unified School District, which pared class sizes in the first through third grades, expanding the program to the kindergarten level would imperil the district’s finances, Supt. James A. Fleming said.

“It’s a meaningful step,” he said, adding that schools would have been better served if the money went to fund the existing program. “But what concerns me is if the state doesn’t stop and take stock of what the real housing situation and costs are to best deliver the program, we could see this great initiative go under.”

At the Magnolia School District, a small elementary district in Anaheim, officials said the additional funding will not benefit them.

“I love the news that we could expand” the program, said Supt. Paul S. Mercier, whose staff struggled to slash class sizes in the first grade and some second-grade classes this year. “But if we don’t have enough funding for grades already dealing with smaller class size, I can’t take advantage of it. I can’t afford to go past what I have now.”

Wilson on Thursday did offer more resources to help solve the space crunch facing many school districts that are trying to implement the popular smaller classes--a problem especially acute in large, crowded districts.

In addition to proposing $488 million for class size reduction in his 1997 budget, Wilson said he will ask the Legislature to put a $2-billion bond issue on the June 1998 ballot--$1 billion for new classrooms needed for class-size reduction and the rest to relieve unrelated crowding problems.

But some Orange County administrators said the bond might not pass, and that they can’t wait that long.

“In many districts, especially in this area of Orange County, we’re seeing fewer and fewer voters who have children in schools,” said Garden Grove Assistant Supt. Art Becker.

Capistrano’s Fleming urged the governor to hold a special election this March on the bond issue.

“If we don’t get a school bond out before June 1998, this is going to turn into a housing crisis of the first order,” Fleming said. “We need more housing now, today.”

Fleming added that space constraints have forced schools to take money from upper grades to achieve smaller class sizes in lower ones.

“What happens is you end up serving a relatively small number of students, [albeit] on a significant matter, while over time, students in the upper grades will see the quality of their programs diminish,” he said. For example, he said, money originally allocated to improve English instruction at the district’s middle schools was gobbled up by the reduction program.

Generally, educators said they believe the extra money would have been better spent by raising the current stipend of $650 per student in classes limited to 20, to $720 to $800 per pupil. Some suggested that stipend be increased annually to keep up with the inevitable inflation costs that come with teacher pay raises and student population growth.

Wilson said he will seek a constitutional amendment that would make it easier for school districts to raise funds locally, by cutting from two-thirds to a simple majority the number of votes required to pass a bond issue.

But to win the political support needed to get fellow Republicans to go along, the governor plans to ask the Legislature to cap the amount of money that school districts can ask developers to pay to cover the cost of school construction--a proposal that education groups can be expected to fight. And he would require school districts to put up half the cost of any construction.

The announcements marked the first funding proposals by Wilson as he prepares for his 1997 “State of the State” address and the unveiling of his budget.

“This is definitely a two thumbs up,” state Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin said, reacting to Wilson’s proposal.

Eastin had hoped for an even more generous proposal, one in which the state would put up $800 for each student enrolled in the smaller classes. Wilson is proposing $666, up from $650 this year. And she backs a $3-billion bond issue, rather than Wilson’s $2-billion proposal.

Nevertheless, she said, “This is the most exciting time in 20 or 30 years” for schools.

By February, when school districts must certify to the state the number of their smaller classes, 95% of eligible districts are expected to be taking part in the program to some degree. Most have achieved smaller classes in first and second grades. Far fewer have implemented the program in kindergarten or third grade.

But in some cases, creating small classes has required districts to redraw school boundaries or institute a year-round schedule.

The Huntington Beach Unified School District, for example, currently is in the process of redrawing school boundaries in order to expand the class-reduction program beyond the first grade, a move that displeases most parents, Supt. Duane Dishno admitted.

“If you’re happy with your kid’s school, you wouldn’t want to make your kid move to another school,” he said. “But that’s the only way for us to reduce class sizes.”

And in the Capistrano Unified School District, parents at John Malcom Elementary School are circulating a petition against plans to implement a year-round schedule to accommodate the massive student population growth, exacerbated by the size-reduction program.

“If keeping the 20-to-1 [student-teacher ratio] means the district will create a multitrack system, I say we forgo the program,” said parent Donna Van Gilder, also a teacher.

Some educators said the longer the program runs, the more expensive it will become as the salaries of teachers hired to staff the new classes rise.

Wilson’s proposal is “very enticing but fiscally irresponsible,” said Conejo Valley Supt. Jerry Gross. “I think the governor and the Legislature must rethink their approach to this or else, down the road, they’ll find school districts in financial trouble, receivership and bankruptcy, the way this is structured.”

“It’s certainly a good show,” said Simi Valley Unified School District Trustee Carla Kurachi. “[But] when you manage your personal finances, do you plan on raises you might or might not get? Prudent people wouldn’t bet on something that’s not a sure thing. That’s not fair to our teachers, our kids and our community.”

Still, most educators applauded Wilson’s effort--even if they are worried about its implications.

Charles Norton, a spokesman for the Montebello Unified School District, said the benefits of the program are remarkable, noting how much easier it is for a teacher to instruct 20 students than 30 or more.

But Norton said he is preoccupied with working through the financial headaches of reducing class sizes for first-graders before compounding the problems by adding more grades.

“I’m trying to figure out where can I get another 60 classrooms and how are we going to pay those new teachers three years from now,” he said.

Times staff writers Tina Nguyen, Douglas P. Shuit and Kenneth R. Weiss and correspondent Kate Folmar contributed to this story.