Editorial: On the size of classes: Obey the law

Thursday, Feb. 5, 2004 | 8:53 a.m.

In 1989 then-Gov. Bob Miller and the Nevada Legislature realized that the state's growth was depriving students in the early grades of needed individualized attention. Appropriately, a state law was passed requiring that kindergarten through third grade classes number no more than 15 students apiece.

Fast forward to 2004 and what do we have? In the Clark County School District, kindergarten classes average 24.4 students, first and second grades average 16.5 students and third grades average 19.9 students. For district superintendents around the state, such numbers have brought up a dilemma each year -- they don't have enough state funding to provide the 15-student classes, so what do they do about the law?

The answer has been waivers. Each year, when the true class sizes are known and unavoidable, the school districts apply for and receive waivers from the state Education Department. Thirteen of the state's 17 school districts, including Clark County, have applied for waivers this year.

The Education Department, tired of all the burdensome paperwork every year, wants the Legislature to change the class-size law to reflect the actual funding the districts receive. In our view, however, this would spell an end to the state's worthy effort to limit class sizes in the early grades. Critics claim there is no proof that smaller class sizes work, but how does anyone know when the desired reduction has never been achieved? The Legislature should do the math every year and provide enough funding so that its own law can be obeyed. That would end the paperwork -- and begin education right for Nevada's children.