EDITORIAL SMALLER CLASSES, SAME RESULTS.

It will take more than money to fix California schoolsFOUR years and millions of dollars later, the class-size reduction results are in.

And they're not too impressive.

According to a new study from a consortium of educational research groups, reducing California classes to 20 students or less in kindergarten through third grade has been a mixed blessing.

On the plus side, students in smaller classes seem to be faring better.

But only slightly.

The percentage of California kids in reduced-size classes who perform at or above the national median is just 1 to 4 percentage points higher than that of students in larger classes.

That's a modest return on a big investment of taxpayer money.

And it comes with a big price: Reducing class size has created a massive demand for new teachers that exceeds schools' ability to crank them out.

To fill faculty vacancies, school districts across the state have had to hire teachers who are unqualified or inexperienced. Last year, only 86.6 percent of California teachers were credentialed - compared to 98.2 percent in 1995.

Classes are getting smaller, but the teachers leading them are getting worse.

And that gets to the heart of California's education woes - not too many kids, but too few good teachers.

For decades, the education establishment has insisted that fixing schools was simply a matter of money: Spend more, and education will get better.

But the disappointing returns on class-size reduction have discredited the spend-it-don't-mend-it philosophy yet again.

Good teachers no doubt thrive in smaller classes, but smaller classes won't make bad teachers good.