HJR 1571 2003
1	House Joint Resolution
2	A joint resolution proposing an amendment to Section 1 of
3	Article IX of the State Constitution to require class size
4	reduction only in prekindergarten through grade 3.
5
6	Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
7
8	That the amendment to Section 1 of Article IX of the State
9	Constitution set forth below is agreed to and shall be submitted
10	to the electors of Florida for approval or rejection at the
11	general election to be held in November 2004:
12	ARTICLE IX
13	EDUCATION
14	SECTION 1. Public education.--
15	(a) The education of children is a fundamental value of
16	the people of the State of Florida. It is, therefore, a
17	paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the
18	education of all children residing within its borders. Adequate
19	provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe,
20	secure, and high quality system of free public schools that
21	allows students to obtain a high quality education and for the
22	establishment, maintenance, and operation of institutions of
23	higher learning and other public education programs that the
24	needs of the people may require. To assure that children
25	attending public schools obtain a high quality education, the
26	legislature, the executive branch, and the school board of each
27	school district shall make adequate provision to ensure that, by
28	the beginning of the 2010 school year, there are a sufficient
29	number of classrooms so that:
30	(1)the maximum number of students who are assigned to
31	each teacher who is teaching in public school classrooms for
32	prekindergarten through grade 3 does not exceed 18 students;
33	(2) The maximum number of students who are assigned to
34	each teacher who is teaching in public school classrooms for
35	grades 4 through 8 does not exceed 22 students; and
36	(3) The maximum number of students who are assigned to
37	each teacher who is teaching in public school classrooms for
38	grades 9 through 12 does not exceed 25 students.
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40	The class size requirements of this subsection do not apply
41	to extracurricular classes. Payment of the costs associated with
42	reducing class size to meet these requirements is the
43	collaborative responsibility of the state and the school not of
44	local schools districts. Beginning with the 2003-2004 fiscal
45	year, the legislature shall provide sufficient funds to reduce
46	the average number of students in each classroom by at least two
47	students per year until the maximum number of students per
48	classroom does not exceed the requirements of this subsection.
49	(b) Every four-year-old child in Florida shall be provided
50	by the State a high quality pre-kindergarten learning
51	opportunity in the form of an early childhood development and
52	education program which shall be voluntary, high quality, free,
53	and delivered according to professionally accepted standards. An
54	early childhood development and education program means an
55	organized program designed to address and enhance each child's
56	ability to make age appropriate progress in an appropriate range
57	of settings in the development of language and cognitive
58	capabilities and emotional, social, regulatory and moral
59	capacities through education in basic skills and such other
60	skills as the Legislature may determine to be appropriate.
61	(c) The early childhood education and development programs
62	provided by reason of subparagraph (b) shall be implemented no
63	later than the beginning of the 2005 school year through funds
64	generated in addition to those used for existing education,
65	health, and development programs. Existing education, health,
66	and development programs are those funded by the State as of
67	January 1, 2002 that provided for child or adult education,
68	health care, or development.
69	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the title and substance of the
70	amendment proposed herein shall appear on the ballot as follows:
71	FOCUSED CLASS SIZE REDUCTION
72	FOR PREKINDERGARTEN THROUGH THIRD GRADE
73	Proposes an amendment to Section 1 of Article IX of the
74	State Constitution to continue the class size reduction for
75	prekindergarten through grade 3 students adopted in the 2002
76	general election for public schools, but eliminates the class
77	size reduction requirements in grades 4 through 12.