First the Obama Administration proposed eliminating K-12 school emergency planning grants from the 2012 federal budget. Now, it appears the House Appropriations Committee is calling to eliminate the funds from this year’s 2011 budget! In a Friday press release on $4 billion in spending cuts as a part of a proposed short term government funding Continuing […]
Category Archive: School Safety Funding
How a Pre-Columbine Mindset is Threatening School Safety
Shootings, hit lists, explosives, and even a murder do not seem to be keeping some school administrators and boards from hunkering down into a pre-Columbine mentality on school safety. School Administrators and Boards Playing School Safety “On-the-Cheap” Hiding behind challenging fiscal times, some school “leaders” are playing school safety “on the cheap” in spite of […]
Budget Cuts Shift School Safety From Proactive to Reactive
School boards and superintendents tell parents school safety is their top priority. But in some districts, they are not putting their money where their mouth is. Budget Cuts Make Schools More Reactive on Safety Charlotte-Mecklenberg’s school district superintendent is recommending $1 million in cuts to the district’s law enforcement division, according to a local news […]
Fiscal Commission: Cut Fed Safe & Drug Free Schools Office
The Federal Deficit Commission is recommending elimination of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools, saving the federal government $1.8 billion dollars. Recommendation 16 on page 7 of the Commission’s preliminary report recommends: “16. Eliminate the Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools. In the President’s budget, funding for the […]
Pipe Bombs & Shooting Threats: Violence or Incivil Behavior?
High-profile school security incidents this week included: A pipe bomb disabled at a Los Angeles school. A teen arrested for a mass schooting plot at a school. Texas schools on the Mexican border preparing for stray bullets from Mexican drug cartel wars. Is this violence? Or is it a manifestation of bullying, harassment, and “incivil” […]
Schools Are Under-Funded & Under-Prepared for Disasters, Feds Say
Schools and communities are neglecting children due to a lack of funding and lack of a national strategy to address the needs of children in disaster planning, according to a report by The National Commission on Children and Disasters, a commission created in 2007 by the President and Congress. “Children are 25 percent of our […]
School Security Budget Cuts: Education Dept Report Reveals Major Setbacks
Federal, state, and local school safety budget cuts are having a dramatic effect on school safety and security programs, according to a federal report by the U.S. Department of Education published in July, 2010. “The elimination of several significant funding sources (e.g., Title IV, Safe and Drug‐Free Schools) from both national and local budgets has also […]
What Constitutes Comprehensive School Safety Policies, Programs, and Funding?
The “bullying summit” held by the U.S. Department of Education this past week drew attention, praise, opposition, and spirited debate depending upon who you talked with about it. As legislators, bureaucrats, educators, media and others jump on the “bullying bandwagon,” what constitutes a more comprehensive and balanced school safety plan? I revisited my July 9, 2009, […]
Why a Proposed Federal School Safety Grant Does Not “Replace” the Eliminated Safe and Drug Free Schools Program
In a local Cleveland news interview last Thursday, I spoke about the elimination of the state grant component of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program. As the public attention on school budget cuts center around teacher layoffs, reductions in transportation, and elimination of sports programs, cuts to school safety funding are going on behind-the-scenes […]
Safe and Drug Free Schools Grant Elimination Hits Schools Hard
The state grant component of the decade-old federal Safe and Drug Free Schools Program has been eliminated from the latest federal budget, costing many schools as of July 1st their primary funds marked specifically for school safety. The program was a formula grant drug and violence prevention program which passed money through state education departments to local […]