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State lawmakers made school safety a top priority this year after the deaths of 19 students and two teachers in the 2022 Uvalde school shooting. But even after passing a proposed radical law on the subject last May, schools sounded the alarm that the $1.4 billion approved to fund the new initiatives does not go far enough.
School districts now fear that political conflicts over vouchers will prevent them from getting additional aid.
Parliamentary Bill 3promulgated by the governor. Greg Abbott in June, requires school districts to develop active shooter plans and requires mental health training for certain employees. It also provides funding to allow schools to install silent panic buttons in classrooms and requires each campus to have an armed guard present during school hours.
All of these measures have created new costs for schools already facing high inflation, a tough job market and a disappointing end to this year’s regular legislative session, in which a measure that would have sent schools 4 .5 billion additional dollars was the victim of bickering between the Texas House of Representatives and Senate over voucher programs.
Many school officials said the $10 per student and $15,000 per campus each district received for school security expenses is not enough to cover what for many districts includes the need to hire new full-time staff in each school.
When security measures such as protective fencing are mandated by the state, the limited number of sellers offering the service significantly increases prices, said Craig Bessent, a Texas School Safety Center board member appointed by Abbott. This creates a problem for small school districts that spend most of the funding they receive on other needs like school buses and teacher pay.
Hearne Independent School District Superintendent Adrain Johnson said his rural district was forced to spend other funds on the new safety measures. In recent years, the district has made several security improvements, including adding metal detectors, silent panic buttons, new fencing and additional cameras to campuses.
In addition to increased security measures, the district spends about $115,000 a year to pay for two officers, equipment, training and a vehicle for the district’s campuses.
“It is disappointing that we have not secured the funding necessary to do this at a level that does not harm the district and allows us to devote the majority of our funding to children’s education,” he said. he declares.
Last month, Abbott recalled lawmakers for special legislative sessionurging them to pass his top legislative priority: a school voucher program that would allow Texas parents to use state dollars to pay for their children’s private school tuition or homeschooling expenses. residence.
The Senate has already adopted Senate Bill 2, a supplemental measure intended to provide additional funding to school districts to support teacher pay and safety measures. This bill would double the per-student school security allocation to $20 and increase the per-campus allocation to $30,000. It would also clarify who qualifies as an armed security officer required to be on each campus.
But the state constitution says lawmakers can only pass bills on topics designated by the governor in a special session, and so far, Abbott has not added security funding school on its agenda. He indicated a willingness to consider school funding as an issue later this session, but only after passage of a voucher bill. This seems uncertain, given the sustained opposition in the House.
The House has yet to take any action on the Senate bill, and a House proposal also appears stalled. The extraordinary session must end before November 7.
But even if SB 2 were successful, many schools believe it would not be enough. David Bates, Dallas ISD chief operating officer, said installing some security measures would still be financially challenging for the large urban school district. Paying an armed guard can cost between $65,000 and $70,000 per campus, Bates said.
“Going from $15,000 to $30,000 per campus would be a big step forward, but it still misses the goal by about 50 percent,” he said.
The safety measures imposed by the Legislature represent an additional financial burden on the district, on top of recovery payments and declining enrollment, Bates said. To continue upgrading and implementing safety measures, the district will need to dip into its savings account, as it has often done in the past.
Meanwhile, for Khang Ngo, a student at Clear Brook High School south of Houston, the measures implemented — including the hiring of four police officers — are a stressful reminder of being a student in the era school shootings.
“I feel like the guards set reality even more in stone,” Ngo said. “It is clear now that we need more police officers to ensure our safety. »
But Ngo said he doesn’t feel much safer going to school and worries that no amount of increased security will be enough.
“I’m always afraid that one day someone will come and shoot up my school,” he said. “After all, these other schools have implemented all these safety changes and there are still shootings, so why not mine?
Bessent, a member of the school safety council, said Texas leaders have continued to make student safety a priority.
“The state of Texas is one of the leading states in school safety,” he said. “They are very proactive, our legislators have supported us, Governor Abbott has supported us. …No one ever said this would be a quick and easy process. We have to continue, we have to continue working on it even when we don’t have a school safety bill.”
Johnson, the Hearne superintendent, said he hopes his district can work collaboratively with the state to develop a plan that will help it implement these measures without undue cost to the district and taxpayers.
In the meantime, Johnson said the district will continue to do everything it can to protect students.
“This is not going to stop us,” he said. “We are going to do what we can, everything we can do for the safety of our students. It’s our number one priority, along with our children’s education.
