As thousands of Illinois teachers receive pink slips in this  spring's brutal budget season, parents can do the math: Fewer  teachers equals higher class sizes.

Administrators have assured them that the modest increases being proposed at many schools won't make a significant difference — and research largely backs them up. Still, parents across the region are venting frustration at school board meetings and pleading for teachers to negotiate lower salaries to save jobs.

Case in point: In Highland Park, school officials thought they could trim $300,000 off a growing deficit by adding one or two students to elementary classrooms. They quickly backed off the proposal after running into a storm of opposition.

"I really feel class size is an issue," Linda Karmin of Highland Park told her school board.Her daughter was in a first-grade class of 24 with a solid, respected teacher, and yet, "the teacher didn't even know her. She was too busy focusing on discipline rather than teaching," she said.

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