Dive Brief:

• The Florida House passed a bill Friday that would ease up on penalties currently imposed on classrooms that go over class size limits. 
• In 2002, the state passed a law that placed limits on class sizes for core subjects: 18 students in grades K-3; 22 students in grades 4-8; and 25 students in high school. Classrooms exceeding those numbers were penalized.
• The new bill would only penalize districts if a school's average class size was above these limits, which is the method used from 2006-10, when the law was eased in. 

Dive Insight:

According to the Associated Press, the state has spent nearly $30 billion on the class size requirements since 2003, and a large bulk of that money has gone to hiring new teachers. While easing up those requirements may save the state some money, the reality is the law was put into place for a reason: students learn better in smaller class environments. Moving away from these requirements could prove to be a slippery slope. More students in a classroom hurts test scores, but it also hurts the ability to create a positive classroom environment. We've seen, for example, the detrimental effects of overcrowded classrooms in Detroit.