Tallahassee, FL - Elementary school teacher Lynette Estrada is on a one-day field trip to Tallahassee. She came all the way from Miami-Dade county, the plaintiff in a case aimed at invalidating Amendment 8.
Estrada and her union complain it's designed to trick voters into overturning the class size amendment. A law Estrada says even her ninth-grade daughter has come to appreciate.
Estrada says, "She's seen a difference with it and she said, 'good, don't let them increase the sizes,' 'cause she gets lost. And she's in the gifted program, and sometimes when the classes are too large, she's put to help other kids while the teacher deals with the other ones."
Eight years after the class size amendment became enshrined in Florida's constitution, most parents and teachers continue to believe that fewer kids make for a higher-quality education, but down the hall in the main office, some principals disagree.
"We have more kids than ever that are taking math classes online."
Leon High School principal Rocky Hanna is taking drastic measures to keep his classes at 25 students or less.
Case-in-point...A computer lab, where 200 kids take classes online to help keep the head count in class*rooms* below the threshold.
Even though his teachers are in favor of the caps, Hanna says it's ultimately students who are losing out.
Hannah says, "We should be on their side, I hope, or we're not doing our job. But when you start pitting teachers and principals against each other and doing this instead of this, that's...man, that's a tough one."
If there's one thing both teachers and principals *can* agree on, it's a need for more money in the public schools.
"I want to know where the money's going."
In difficult economic times, resolving that issue could be even more divisive than the immediate fight over a controversial amendment.