TALLAHASSEE (AP) – Rep. Will Weatherford thought class size limits were a good idea when, as a college student, he joined millions of other Floridians in voting for them nearly seven years ago.

Now faced with having to pay for the smaller classes as a lawmaker, he’s still not opposed to the concept but wants to loosen the requirements to give schools some leeway and save money.

Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, is sponsoring a proposed state constitutional amendment (HJR 919) that would ask voters to modify what they passed in 2002.

The measure cleared its first committee Tuesday. The largely party-line vote in the House Pre-kindergarten-12 Policy Committee was 10-3. All Republicans and one Democrat voted for it. The other Democrats were against it.

Weatherford insists he’s not watering down or repealing class-size requirements. Several attempts to do that have failed in the Legislature over the years.

“What this bill does is make class size better,” Weatherford said. “There’s nothing wrong with having limits on class size. It’s just how you do it.”

The existing amendment sets limits of 18 students in kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grade and 25 in high school.

Those requirements would still have to be met on a school average basis under Weatherford’s proposal. Individual classes, though, could exceed the limits by three students in the lowest grades, four in the middle grades and five in high school.

The current amendment says the limits must be implemented by the beginning of the 2010-11 school year. Implementing legislation began phasing in the limits earlier, first on a district average and now a school average basis.

The state already has spent about half of the $21 billion the Florida Department of Education predicted it would cost to implement the class size amendment, including hiring more teachers and adding classroom space, but Weatherford acknowledged he doesn’t know how much his revision would save.

Whatever it is, he said it should not be thrown “into the black hole” but put back into the schools for improving teachers’ pay, technology, transportation and after-school programs.

However, there’s no guarantee that would happen if the amendment is passed.