Texas comptroller's plan would cut 12,000 teaching jobs to save $558 million

The Dallas Morning News reports:

Nearly 12,000 elementary school teaching jobs would be slashed – for a total annual savings of $558 million – if the state scraps the current 22-pupil class size limit in elementary grades, Comptroller Susan Combs recommended Wednesday.

Combs' plan would eliminate the 25-year-old requirement that classes in kindergarten through fourth grade have no more than 22 pupils unless a school district gets a waiver from the state. The suggestion drew angry opposition from state teacher groups.

But the comptroller says the Legislature should adopt an average class size for those grades of 22 students, rather than a strict limit enforced on each class. The current average under the 22-pupil limit is 19.3 students across the five grade levels.

"Many school officials believe the 22-to-1 limit interferes with their ability to staff campuses cost-effectively, asserting that classes with up to 25 students can operate without any loss of instructional effectiveness," the comptroller said in a far-reaching report on school spending and student achievement released Wednesday.

An interesting article.