Telling comment from Lanesborough

If you remember the big take away on urbans and the foundation budget, it's that they can't meet the basic needs of students adequately on the foundation budget. Cue this testimony from Lanesborough (NW corner of the state, by Williamstown) last night:

"I'm sure that it looks awfully self-serving for the fourth-grade teacher to make this request," she said. "But in 23 years of teaching, I've only come before this type of committee once. I'm alarmed that 25 9-year-olds are going to be in a fourth-grade classroom. In the entire history of fourth-grade at the current building, we've never had 25. By the time they get to sixth grade, we do have bigger classes … but with the expectation on fourth-grade, the expectation on these 9-year-olds to meet state standards in a class of 25 is difficult."... 

"In another elementary school in our district, I know there are not 25 students in the fourth grade," Szymanski said. "We're expecting the same progress and the same results, and we're sending the students to the same middle school. … Every elementary school teacher in my position would handle it, but why are we setting it up to be a problem?" Mello said she's had to "piecemeal" things and use every volunteer she can find to get through a year of having 25 pupils in her third-grade classroom and asked the committee to seriously look at the issue for next year.

Again, I'm not criticizing any district that is pushing to keep class sizes small. We should want, and should work towards, that for everyone.