State Wavers on Class Sizes

Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley told a group of parent and teacher organizations Monday that the Texas Education Agency will not reverse a decision that those groups say weakens Texas' longstanding 22-to-1 maximum student-teacher ratio in elementary school classrooms. The TEA holds that the new policy, which Neeley communicated in a "guidance letter" to superintendents dated Oct. 5, simply eases a bureaucratic burden for superintendents requesting waivers to the class-size limit. "There's really no weakening of the regulations," said TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson. Commissioner Neeley "just wanted to help expedite the paperwork process."

The waiver option exists for a reason that, on the surface, makes sense. Take a hypothetical school with 220 third-graders in 10 classrooms. If another third-grader moves to the school midsemester, a waiver would permit one classroom to have 23 students until the end of the semester, rather than making the district immediately hire an extra teacher and shuffle all the third-graders into 11 classrooms with 20 students each. In AISD last year, 12 waivers were requested in October, and another two in March.

But it's the potential for abuse that troubles the parent and teacher groups. They worry that districts could get waivers simply to hire a couple fewer teachers, which is why they say parents need to know before a waiver is requested. "One of our chief concerns is that parental notification pretty much evaporates," said Rob D'Amico, a spokesman for the Texas Federation of Teachers.

Under the previous policy, superintendents who planned to request a waiver had to get approval from their district's board of trustees after a public hearing. Now, school boards can give superintendents authority to request waivers without going through the board or before the public. Parents would be informed of the waiver after the fact, through a letter. Superintendents of districts with high student mobility would have even greater leeway. However, the TEA's Culbertson says boards can reverse a waiver even after it's granted, so parents still have a say. "If a waiver is granted and parents don't like it, they can still take it up with their local boards," she said.

Still, the education groups say they'll continue pressuring Neeley for change. "We don't agree with the commissioner that this is just a change to make the administration of waivers easier," said D'Amico. "It's obvious that waivers aren't being denied. They're being granted for reasons not intended by the law."