A case currently being heard in Suffolk County Superior Court goes to the heart of educational inequity in the US; the manner in which public schools are funded. The plaintiff districts — which include Springfield, Lowell, and Brockton — hope to show that the state must spend more money to rectify a number of problems, class size among them.
Most educators consider class size a crucial factor in academic success, especially in early grades. Not only do students benefit from more teacher time, but since they are monitored and called on more frequently tend to focus and stay on task more consistently.
Springfield has 28 kindergarten classes with 25 or more students, while the wealthy suburbs of Brookline and Wellesley have none. In Grade 5, Springfield has 43 classes with 25 or more students; Brockton, 28; and Lowell, 19. Brookline, Concord, and Wellesley have none.
The lawsuit renews a decades-old legal battle. Some of the same plaintiffs won a Supreme Judicial Court victory in 1993, which forced the Legislature to pass the state’s education reform law, establishing mandatory levels of funding for all schools.