I'm hoping that every parent in Amherst noted with horror Nick Grabbe's article "Schools expand 'choice' to all grades" on the expansion of school choice to the Amherst elementary schools. In the article, Superintendent of Schools Maria Geryk explains that what she sees as under-filled classrooms will now be topped off with children from other towns, bring in more money for the schools, and won't cost the Amherst taxpayers an extra dime, since no new teachers are needed.

Sounds lovely, and it would be if our elementary classrooms were the ghost towns the article implies. Geryk hopes to see the classes expanded to a "target" of 22 students in each kindergarten through second-grade class, 23 for third and fourth grades, and 24 for fifth and sixth.

To put that in perspective - that's three to five students above the state average for elementary schools, and two to four above the national average, according to the most recent numbers from the National Center for Educational Statistics. Sorry, Amherst taxpayers - apparently paying the second highest tax rate in the state doesn't even buy you the state average. Those statistics don't even account for the high percentage of limited English proficiency students (about 20 percent) and the percentage of low-income students (about 37 percent), all of whom need extra attention at school if they are to succeed in their elementary years and beyond.

Let me speak as an Amherst parent whose child is now in one of the only classrooms that currently meets the "target."

The target is a nightmare.

My Fort River first-grade son is in a class of 23, which the target would rate as peachy, but I doubt anyone who has visited his classroom recently would agree. It's a space shared with a third-grade class of 19 students and divided by a flimsy partition - imagine a cubicle partition - which does not reach the ceiling. The third-graders and first-graders may not always be able to see each other, but they can hear each other, and classes must constantly pass through each other's space to access the restroom or the hallway. That's 40-plus students with two teachers giving different lessons and trying to keep the many students quiet and on task.

It's a nice idea - more money for the schools sounds great. But what it really means is less time a teacher has for each child. Less time for each child means slower learning and eroding test scores down the line. According to the well-known Tennessee STAR Report on class size, my son and his classmates are less likely to participate in class and more likely to be out-performed by children in smaller classes.

And if new students move into the Amherst district mid-year, as they so often do given the fluctuating population of college students and visiting professors with children? Into those stuffed classrooms, let's welcome Student #24, Student #25, Student #26, and so on, because our schools are obligated to take them.

I hope that parents and other concerned Amherst residents will attend the Feb. 14 meeting of the Amherst School Committee at 7 p.m. at Amherst Town Hall, that will include a discussion of school choice and the "target" numbers.

I do not fault our superintendent for trying to get more money for the schools. That's part of her job. Larger classes, however, are not the way to go about it, and I hope she and the Amherst School Committee will reconsider.

Karen Skolfield, mother of a preschooler and first-grader, lives in Amherst.