There’s less than a month left until voters will decide the gubernatorial race. Incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott is running against former Gov. Charlie Crist. It’s hard to avoid the attack ads flying back and forth from both campaigns.

In a TV spot called “Gone”, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Crist hits his opponent hard on education. The ad claims:

    “The job Florida teachers do couldn't be more valuable. When Rick Scott cut education by over a billion dollars, thousands of them lost their jobs. Class sizes went up. Our kids paid the price.”

PolitiFact Florida rated the claim for it’s truthfulness. Writer Angie Holan says the claim rates MOSTLY FALSE. Holan said it’s rooted in a bit of truth.

“2011 was a very tough budget year. There were budget cuts, a few teachers were laid off. Relatively speaking, it was just under 2,000, so not really thousands - that's an exaggeration,” Holan said.

Crist’s ad goes on to make a claim about class sizes. In 2002, Florida voters approved a class size amendment that the state phased in over several years. But laws passed by the State Legislature make it tricky to quantify and track the changes.

According to the Florida Department of Education, the percentage of classes that were out of compliance with the class size amendment was 5.48 percent under  Crist in the 2010-2011 school year. The number goes up to 6.56 percent in Scott’s first year in office. But that percentage falls to 4.22 percent in the 2012-2013 school year and to just 2.59 percent in the 2013-2014 year. Because of these things, PolitiFact Florida rated the claim MOSTLY FALSE.

SOURCES: CRIST BLAMES GOV. RICK SCOTT ON EDUCATION HITS