#  Smaller Class Sizes: Access to Teachers is Key to Education

     Details    Sara Roos   ![logo](https://mail.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         October 23 2014       [ARCHIVE](https://mail.citywatchla.com/archive)   - [  Previous Article **How Sick is This Generation's Pills for Profit Philosophy?** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7765:how-sick-is-this-generation-s-pills-for-profit-philosophy&catid=16)
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> ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Oct-2014/86n.png)LA SCHOOLS-Batting the [distractions](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lausd-board-terminates-deasy-contract-20141016-story.html) away, today is a [lovely day](http://www.nbclosangeles.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seen-on/Cortines-Arrives-for-First-Day/279785002) to advance a reformed outlook for Los Angeles’ schools. It’s time to leave [jargon, hyperbole and spin](http://home.lausd.net/ourpages/auto/2014/10/16/24061438/Letter_JohnDeasy_101514.pdf) aside and focus on the reality of any-child’s education experience in LAUSD.

>
> From the actual halls my children traipse during a school day, this is what I know. One child sits in a classroom with nearly ***FIFTY*** children in it.
>
> The actual count is hard to know for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that the actual kids assigned to the class is apparently one of those [unknown knowables](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3254852.stm).
>
> Due to the [insidious power of MiSiS](http://4lakidsnews.blogspot.com/2014/10/two-thoughts-worth-far-more-than-2-re.html), not only does no one know who is supposed to be where, not kids, teachers, administrators or parents – but that which is not known, changes daily. Like, wow.
>
> And that is not the only insanely-large classroom my child suffers in: two out of five instructional classes hovers at 50 +/- 3 kids. Like, double wow.
>
> Meanwhile, don’t kid yourself for one second that when parents “opt with their feet” for “Change” – it is this that they are opting for and against.
>
> They are opting against classrooms with too many children in them. They are opting for their child’s functional access to a teacher who functions. They are opting for charters because by informal survey of the websites of seven Westside charter schools, their explicitly advertised class sizes range from 24-30, averaging 28. And private schools average (via informal survey of just 7, again) a full 10 students fewer at 18 (range 13-26).
>
> The disparity of any-child’s opportunity for a teacher’s attention between these schools is just huge, huge, huge. And no one *chooses* inferior conditions.
>
> When people talk about “choice” there is some implication of variable circumstances that would make one choice preferable for one individual compared with a different set of circumstances that would favor a different choice for others (would you rather pistachio or mango ice cream today?).
>
> But ***no*** circumstances would ever argue for choosing a larger class size over a smaller one — not in a fair comparison where other circumstances are held equal. There are disingenuous arguments that bait-and-switch this matter, but in a true comparison, no one will opt for a K12 classroom of 50 students over one of 28 or 18.
>
> To invoke teacher “quality” as is [sometimes argued](http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2013/06/One-Class-Size-Does-Not-Fit-All) by the duplicitously named “reform movement”, as an extenuating factor is to selectively change the comparisons. Suggesting 50 students in front of a stellar teacher is better than 2 classrooms of 25 in front of a substandard teacher completely begs the question: why employ substandard teachers and how would you know one anyway?
>
> The reality is patent as families gravitate toward the realm not of better teachers, an indistinct concept at best, but of an objectively lower class count within a private education sector of charters and for-profits.
>
> The ballooning of public district school class sizes has not just been a serendipitous or unfortunate happenstance, an “unknowable unknown”. It is an explicit political decision, furthered by [decimating the budget](http://www.california-partnership.org/2014/07/02/1343/) for teachers and education. It is not solely the budgetary decisions of our now ex-superintendent that seemingly sought to [substitute technology for teachers](http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2014/04/07/16309/board-to-weigh-spending-proposals-for-lausd-s-6-8/).
>
> It is as well the confidence of the people that has soured on their own human resources, on our very own people-powered economy of middle class jobs.
>
> We have knowingly failed to support the adequate education of our own young by an adequately trained army of teachers in adequate numbers.
>
> ---
>
> {module \[862\]}
> {module \[662\]}
>
> ---
>
> We can choose to cut these teachers’ livelihood but at what cost? At the expense of our own children’s welfare and our own egalitarian society? What sort of self-hating solution is that?
>
> With the urgent changing of our children’s administrative guard comes the urgent opportunity to revitalize our priorities in keeping with any-child’s best interest. This means getting more of our teachers in front of more classrooms that house fewer of our children.
>
> Excellence is encouraged precisely when [Class Size Matters](http://www.classsizematters.org/research-and-links/) because teaching and teachers matter. Our children are not computers to be programmed rotely with knowledge.
>
> It takes mutual effort to insinuate “learning” and conscious living inside of a kid, strategically and with finesse, recognizing the complexity and ambiguity of reality.
>
> This is hard work, it always will be hard work, and it will always by definition, be the task of a human being.
>
> *Please Prioritize Lower Class Sizes Now, Superintendent Cortines!*
>
> ***(Sara Roos is a politically active resident of Mar Vista, a biostatistician, the parent of two teenaged LAUSD students and a CityWatch contributor, who blogs at[ redqueeninla.com](http://redqueeninla.com/))***
>
> ***-cw***
>
> **CityWatch**
>
> **Vol 12 Issue 86**
>
> **Pub: Oct 24, 2014**

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