By ERIK SCHELZIG
Associated Press
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam said Wednesday that he's abandoning his proposal to do away with average class size restrictions in Tennessee.
The Republican governor's
decision came as a growing chorus of educators and parents - and the
lawmakers who represent them - criticized the idea, fearing the change
would hurt teaching standards because more classrooms would be filled to
capacity.
Haslam said in a press
conference in his Capitol office that his plan was thwarted by the
challenge of explaining that the measure's goal is to give school
districts more flexibility to hire high-priority teachers.
"When the reason to do
something takes you four minutes to explain, but the reason not to do
something - you can say large classes bad, small class sizes good -
takes five seconds, it's a difficult process," Haslam said
The governor noted that
Tennessee is the only state that places caps on both the total classroom
size as well as on average school-wide enrollment.
The difference between the
average and maximum limits is five students. For example, no class in
elementary schools can be larger than 25 students, but the school-wide
average can be no more than 20 per class.
But the governor's message fell flat as he tried to persuade teachers and administrators during school visits around the state.
"We've heard enough discussion
and feedback of, 'We understand where you're trying to go, we still
have concerns about the path that you're going there on,'" Haslam said.
"So we said that's fine, we will wait and work on that and pursue it
with some adjustments next year."
Haslam's decision to put off
the bill was lauded by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as
by the state's largest teachers' union.
"We thought it was the wrong
approach from the very beginning," said Tennessee Education Association
lobbyist Jerry Winters. "It wasn't good for education or the children of
this state."
House Speaker Beth Harwell,
R-Nashville, noted that the decision came after a series of meetings
with teachers and administrators at schools around the state. She called
it "a credit to him as leader that he would listen to all interested
parties, and say let's step back from this and revisit it another time."
Democratic Senate Minority
Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis said the proposal was a case of where
"sometimes ideas sound good in a meeting, but when you go public they
don't work out."
"I think people in Tennessee want us to try to keep class sizes as small as possible," he said.
Senate Education Chairwoman
Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville, said she was supportive of giving school
districts more flexibility to make staffing decisions.
"This is all a process, and we're all headed in the same direction," she said. "And it's not necessarily easy to get there."
Haslam said he's not planning
to back off of a separate proposal in his legislative agenda that would
do away with most civil service protections for state workers.
Haslam said the move is in keeping with his governing mantra of providing "the very best service for the very lowest cost."
"When every 1 of our
commissioners says that's the most important thing we can do to provide
that kind of service for Tennesseans, I think it's really incumbent on
us to follow through and make that happen," he said.
Robert O'Connell, executive
director of the Tennessee State Employees Association said this week
that several weeks of discussions have ended because the "governor's
people were unwilling to remove or compromise on the provisions most
harmful to state employees."
Haslam's proposal would
eliminate rules that allow bumping and retreating, which association
officials say removes seniority as a prime protection for state
employees when layoffs are deemed necessary.
The proposal would also strip the right of a person who is laid off to be called back to work if the economy improves.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
