Are Class Sizes Getting to Be Too Big?

My question, though I wanted to steer towards the financial issues of teaching, I figured I'd save that for later in the semester. What I want to know is, are class sizes getting to be too big? Are the high numbers of students in each class affecting learning abilities? After observing 2nd grade today, the teacher told me that after 2nd grade, class sizes jump from 20 student max to a 30 student max. I think this is WAY too many kids to have in one elementary school class! That's not even bringing up the middle school or high school class sizes! I know that in my town alone, we used to have 2 equal sized middle schools yet 2 years ago they tore one down and now the 7 or more elementary school kids all attend ONE middle school. It must be a madhouse!

My theory is that these large class sizes must decrease learning abilities. With less time for one-on-one interactions between the students and the teacher, there are probably a lot of kids left with questions and unsolved issues at the end of the day. Having a ton of kids in one class is bound to have more behavioral issues, more chit-chatting, playing, and overall, less learning. No matter how strict a teacher may be, there is going to be some level of difficulty ruling over 30 or more kids who just won't listen!

I read an article about this issue in California, and I felt that it would also pertain to here as it had the following information: they had spent a lot of their educational funds on making sure that the lower grades (K-3) had only 20 students to one teacher. Plus, most of these classrooms has an aid or some sort of parent volunteers. The point that they were making was that if they reduced it to 26 students per 1 teacher, plus aides, without adding any more costs they could reduce the class size all the way up to grade six! I think it is unfair that the only classes that are guaranteed to be small are kindergarten, first, second, and third grade. These are important years but all kids in elementary school should be given the same opportunities to learn.

Overall, everything I've read leads to the fact that students suffer if class sizes are too large. But what can be done about this? Public education funding is already at an all time low. Budgets are always being cut, and teachers are constantly getting laid off. The way to fix the solution would be to have more teachers to teach more classes with less students. But in order to do this, they would have to lower the salaries of all of the other teachers. This isn't fair because teachers are already getting paid poorly as it is, and as much as they want to help the students, they need to provide a living for themselves and their families, too. This is a question and concern that I'm sure will exist far into my own teaching career. Unless kids are enrolled in private schools that can afford small class sizes because of the outrageous fees and tuition paid by the parents, we are going to have to deal with large class sizes and do the best we can with what we are offered.

These are the websites I use:
California Article
Research Points
College Perspective