New Budget Slashes School Safety Grants

The recently passed budget cuts school safety budget by more than half. (photo credit: flakeparadigm/Flickr)

School safety was a priority during the 2013 legislature, which allocated $20 million over two years for schools to install safety equipment and hire school resource officers as a response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in late 2012.

Indiana school corporations received the grants over the last two school years, but when the legislature met again this session, that funding was slashed by more than half this year, down to $7 million over the biennium.

The grants have been used toward employing school resource officers, conducting threat assessments or purchasing security equipment that makes it tougher to enter a school or alert police of an emergency.

Niki Kelly of The Journal Gazette reports the decrease in grants won’t affect schools that used them to pay for one time equipment costs:

The 65 percent cut to $7 million likely means less money for equipment – from surveillance cameras and fortified doors to radios and fencing. And it could leave some schools looking for ways to continue paying police working as school resource officers.

“It certainly will be more competitive,” said John Erickson, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, which implements the Indiana Secured School Safety Grant program. “The current plan is to review grants in exactly the same way as in the past – equal and fair. If there are more applications than funding, the board will have to make determinations at that time.”

State Budget Director Brian Bailey said the state launched the program to address a need, but no one knew what to expect. After two years of experience, he and his staff are comfortable that one-time equipment needs have been taken care of, and the focus going forward will be for the school resource officers.

But with less money in the overall pot, the concern is whether existing school resource officers will be able to stay in schools if the district was dependent on these funds to pay the position.

Kelly explains how the reduced grant amounts don’t perfectly align to SRO spending since the last budget cycle.

That breaks down to $3.5 million per year, the 2014 grants included more than $4 million for school resource officers, according to a news release.

“It is not our intention for anyone to lose their grant for school resource officers,” Brown said. But he also acknowledged that programs like this are decided one budget cycle at a time and in conjunction with other education funding.