Jim Wahlbrink: TAs and class sizes

Regarding the June 18 editorial “Foolish cuts”: The state legislature needs to consider the total costs associated with reducing the number of teacher assistants and investing in smaller class sizes.

Smaller class sizes create the need for more classroom space, which comes at high capital costs, and those new classrooms will also create the need for more teachers.

One of the benefits of having teacher assistants is to help those with special needs or students who need extra personal attention to keep pace with the class. This need does not go away by decreasing the class size.

Those children who need additional help will still be in the smaller classes, and the teacher will either have to take time away from all of the class to help a few or not be able to help the few and let them fall further behind.

Has anyone asked teachers whether they would rather have fewer kids in their classrooms without a teacher assistant or a larger number of kids with an assistant and, more important, which option would benefit the students the most?

This issue needs to be debated on both the fiscal costs and on the educational benefits of having teachers assistants.

This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Jim Wahlbrink: TAs and class sizes."