As Aristotle once noted, “the fate of empires depends on the education of the young” (Russo, 2010). It should be comforting that voters regularly make education a top priority. Yet despite countless experiments in reform, public schools today continue to be mired in the same problems that plagued them twenty years ago. Of all the solutions devised to solve these problems, one of the most popular seems to be reducing class sizes. Kirk Johnson, Ph.D., senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, reported, “70% of adults believe that reducing class sizes would lead to significant academic improvements in public schools” (2000). The implication is that voters are willing to pay for class size reductions. Thanks to support from taxpayers across Minnesota, class sizes in grades K – 2 should be no more than 15 students per class to provide students and teachers with an optimal learning environment. Research on class size along with education dates back to a series of studies in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s at Teachers College, Columbia University and the University of Texas at Austin. The studies have carefully examined different classroom conditions in both smaller and larger classes. Some data suggests a kind of threshold effect in considering how many students can be in a classroom before achievement begins to decline. This threshold may vary based on socioeconomic status and ethnicity. Glass and Smith used a meta-analysis to examine all studies conducted on the effects of class size on achievement and concluded “that the optimal class size is less than 15 and that the effects are greatest for children under 12 years of age." age” (1979). The issue is obviously not... middle of paper... for their children. For teachers, reducing class sizes reduces workload and has the potential to reduce discipline problems in the classroom. It would seem that reducing class sizes has something for everyone, including and, perhaps especially, children. It seems obvious that by protecting children's rights we protect everything we care about about our society and make possible everything we would like to improve about our society. There aren't many clear ethical choices in life, but I would say this is one of them; It's really a simple choice. Think of a guy you know. Does he or she deserve a qualified and educated teacher? Does it deserve to receive adequate space and resources? Finally, does he deserve to receive positive attention and interaction while being educated? Case closed.