The Orlando Regional Chamber and the Florida Chamber, have joined the growing list of opponents of Amendment 9 to Reduce Class Size. Both groups realize that if Amendment 9 passes in November, it will have a costly, long-term and devastating effect on Florida.

“The Florida Chamber of Commerce believes that Amendment 9 is wrong for Florida government and Florida’s schools,” said Paul A. Ledford, Senior Vice President of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.  “The passage of this amendment would be fiscally damaging for both the state budget and Florida’s families.”

Echoing Ledford's comments, Mike Ketchum, Vice President for Public Policy at the Orlando Regional Chamber said, "Our Chamber took a backseat to no one in leading support for passage of the recent sales tax increase in Orange County to build schools and lower class size. However, this ill-conceived amendment will play havoc with our already weak state economy and result in dramatically increased taxes and drastically curtailed state programs and services."

The Chamber pointed to both economic and policy reasons for voting against the Class Size Amendment.  Amendment 9, if passed, could:

• Cost Florida at least $27 billion over eight years;
  
• Require, for the first time, a state income tax and/or significant increases in property taxes;
  
• Jeopardize state programs such as health-care, family services, transportation and law enforcement;
  
• Cause a sharp decline in teacher quality due to the large demand for new teachers;
  
• Lessen the opportunity for teacher raises for up to a decade; or
  
• Eliminate critical education programs–special education, arts, music, band, and extracurricular activities

“We consider this Amendment to be not only poor economic policy, but bad education policy,” said Ledford.  “The Florida Chamber is committed to seeing that Florida has a first-class education system.  As stated in our New Cornerstone Report on Intellectual Infrastructure, we do not believe reducing class size is the end-all solution for our education system.  Available funds should be diverted to more proven methods of education policy.”