ST. GEORGE, Utah — A bill is being contemplated in the upcoming legislative session that would set a cap on classroom sizes in kindergarten and first grade in Utah.
"We would like to limit class sizes to 25," said Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights. "When we're talking about the advent of being in kindergarten as mandatory, it's fantastic. But I was just working in a kindergarten. It was 34."
Sen. Riebe, who spoke to FOX 13 News about the idea at the Utah State Legislature's recent interim session in St. George, is proposing the classroom cap bill with Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay. Both are teachers by profession and have personal experience with crowded classrooms. Sen. Riebe called the K-1 classroom cap a "starting point" for schools.
But it could be tricky to immediately implement with teacher shortages statewide and space limitations.
"There are many valves that we can use. If you're struggling for space, you could actually put two teachers in the classroom and they could co-teach, which would be much better than having one teacher with 35," Sen. Riebe said. "You could hire aides to help with the kids that you couldn't put into another classroom so that the number to student teacher ratio was reduced. If you had space, you could actually create another classroom and hire another teacher."
The concept of the legislation has the support of the Utah Education Association, which is the state's largest teachers union.
"When I had class sizes of 18 to 20 I could really get to know the kids and if there were problems with absenteeism or just I understood that they were struggling with a particular skill, I could reach out to them and help them much better than I could when I had a class of 32," said UEA President Renée Pinkney, a teacher for 29 years now.
While supportive of the idea, Pinkney cautioned that the details in any legislation would be important. She said more needs to be done to recruit and retain good teachers.
"And that is a big question, right? Are we going to be able to attract and retain educators? Because when you lower class size, you need more educators, you need more teachers in classrooms. And that is something that we are definitely working on is strengthening the teaching profession and elevating the teaching profession," she told FOX 13 News.
Sen. Riebe (who is currently the Democratic candidate in the 2nd Congressional District special election) acknowledged it could be an expensive idea.
"It could be expensive. But, you know, when we're spending that much money to educate our kids, if we can give them a good foundation, I think it's well worth the money invested," she said.
The bill could be introduced in the 2024 legislative session that begins in January.
