Michael Bloomberg, the very prototype of the wealthy public ed dismantler, took to the pages of the Washington Post last week to complain about class size reduction mandates.
"Or find me a teacher who says, 'I can definitely do better work with more students in the class.' Nope. In fact, there's research out there that says teachers would give up salary to have a smaller class. It's not complicated."
As a matter of fact, in Boston, the teachers union did give up salary increases to fund smaller class size. We struggled more than a decade to bring down class size maxima. At the negotiation table, management had a dollar figure for class size reduction. We surveyed members and they chose to forfeit some percentage of a salary increase for each year of the contract in exchange for smaller classes. It reduces workload that much. Better for kids, better for faculty. And class size must be a topic for negotiation in any CBA in order to protect it.
"Or find me a teacher who says, 'I can definitely do better work with more students in the class.' Nope. In fact, there's research out there that says teachers would give up salary to have a smaller class. It's not complicated."
As a matter of fact, in Boston, the teachers union did give up salary increases to fund smaller class size. We struggled more than a decade to bring down class size maxima. At the negotiation table, management had a dollar figure for class size reduction. We surveyed members and they chose to forfeit some percentage of a salary increase for each year of the contract in exchange for smaller classes. It reduces workload that much. Better for kids, better for faculty. And class size must be a topic for negotiation in any CBA in order to protect it.