re: #502 HappyWarrior

Romney’s a jackass. Small classrooms are good for students. Anyone who actually understands education even a little knows that. But Mitt thinks this is just about the teachers unions.

I agree up to a point. I think the “small class == better education” argument works in some cases (e.g., 40 students vs. 25 students to a class) but may break down somewhat at lower numbers (25 vs. 20 or 20 vs. 15), where the benefit of a smaller class might be outweighed by other factors (teacher time allocation, availability of “special” teachers, etc.).

If you’ve got a fixed budget, it may be that you’re better off paying teachers more, or giving teachers more prep time, or whatever, than simply going for the smallest possible class size.

But, of course, people voting Republican are not aiming to maximize educational outcomes - they’re aiming to reduce the cost of education so that they can keep more of their “hard-earned money”.