Policy Research

The Opportunity Cost of Smaller Classes: A State-By-State Spending Analysis

Marguerite Roza, Monica Ouijdani

Summary

The article examines student teacher ratios in K-12 schools across the country and attempts to examine trends, costs, and benefits of having smaller classroom sizes. The article first claims that although there are increasingly large amounts of people claiming classroom sizes are rapidly increasing and advocating for smaller classrooms, average classroom size has stayed mostly the same over the last 2 decades. Additionally, when asked to predict the average student-teacher ratio 92 percent of respondents over-estimated current conditions. The article argues that, although it is true that smaller classroom sizes are beneficial, there are more efficient ways to use school funding then to reduce classroom sizes. The article provides the example that if schools increased their classroom sizes by 2 students they could afford to pay teachers approximately $5,000 extra per yet thus allowing for higher quality teachers to be considered.

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Policy Implications

This article can be used in trying to find the most efficient way to allocate school funding. The article estimates that the benefits that can be gained from relaxing standards on class sizes would benefit student education more than the smaller classes. The article even goes further to say that, given the tight budget school are working with, decreasing classroom sizes may be the most inefficient use of the money compared to most scenarios.