Class Sizes Matter A Lot

I think that schools nowadays have too many students in classes, especially public schools and this is causing major issues not to schools in the United States but potentially to schools in any and every country in the world. Larger sizes prove to be a challenge financially since public schools are free and are funded by tax dollars and the government. This may sound good, but there are tens of thousands elementary, middle, and high schools all across the United States alone. My first reason why schools should decrease class sizes is that of cost.

The government needs money to purchase school equipment, boards, tables, chairs, doors, textbooks, food, and catering. These are a part of what the government has to fund in a school. With more students, the costs rise meaning more textbooks for more students, more food for more students to eat etc. With all of these factors constantly increasing, means more budget pressure on states and school districts. If schools exceed the budget limit, the school would be underfunded which means students have older and fewer textbooks and outdated school equipment. Teachers would also be affected as their salaries will be lower or teachers would get laid off because of budget pressure and underfunding.

The evidence suggests that increasing class size will harm not only children’s test scores in the short run but also their long-run human capital formation. Money saved today by increasing class sizes will result in more substantial social and educational costs in the future. (Strauss) My second reason is that larger class sizes equate to less efficiency, due to the fact that teachers would not be able to pay attention to the larger class size as efficiently as they are able to a moderate a smaller class size. Hence, it would be more efficient for teachers, students and parents in general for the learning class size to be smaller. That way, the students are able to get more focused attention, the teacher would able to do their job better due to having fewer students to worry about and the parents would feel more satisfied that their kids get enough quality teaching. With smaller class size, schools would attract better teachers.

Smaller class size puts the school at a disadvantage because of its carrying capacity and smaller class sizes mean more teachers and that really becomes costly because of having to pay 50 teachers instead of paying 20 teachers as an example. What really makes it great is that with more qualified teachers, students perform better in small classes and it leads to the student’s parents being happy and then recommending the school to other parents and their kids. The last reason would be connected to the second reason. If school classroom sizes decrease, the students would get more personalized and quality lessons. The teachers would also have more time to focus on struggling students.

This would help them at students who are struggling in the way that they will have more personalized help and more time to get help in their school work and therefore increase student achievement. This would be a great change in decreasing the number of high school dropouts. It would also look better for the teachers and the schools in general if their statistics for school dropouts would be low. One of the reasons I prefer academy classes with 1-7 people is because it is not as crowded as the same time and the teacher is able to help all the students one by one with any questions or problems they have in doing their assignment for example. That is usually why classes with relatively low size are often more expensive as to a class with 10-15 people.

With the ever-increasing class sizes in public schools in America and the pressure it puts on the school and the teachers, it is increasingly clear that a solution to this problem would be class sizes as it would benefit the school, the teachers and the students studying at the school. The solution would improve class efficiency and eventually, and with smaller class sizes with high performing students, will attract better teachers.