A classic partially funded mandate.
In response to the Parkland school shooting, state lawmakers were quick to pat themselves on the back for mandating that an armed law enforcement officer be placed in every public school in Florida.
It’s too bad they weren’t as eager to accept responsibility for funding it.
Volusia County is just one of many school districts around the state that are scrambling to find the money to comply with the new law. Those efforts threaten to divert money from other educational areas, and/or put budgetary pressures on county government and the Sheriff’s Office.
The Legislature appropriated $97.5 million statewide for more school resource officers, but that’s an insufficient amount to cover every school. For instance, Volusia County Schools currently has 26 SROs but needs an additional 45 to comply with the law, at a cost of $6.4 million. The state gave the district only $2 million to cover those costs, leaving it $4 million short.
That’s a classic partially funded mandate, a hallmark of state and federal government. It’s like tossing a person into the deep end of the pool and then throwing him a life preserver only halfway to where he’s foundering, expecting him to swim the remaining distance. Lawmakers take credit for “doing something” about a problem without fully investing in the solution.
(READ: Volusia School Board asks county for $2 million for resource officers)
It’s not like Volusia County has a lot of spare cash sitting around. District officials say they’re facing a $4 million budget deficit, thanks in part to the Legislature failing to provide adequate funding for all the other district obligations. When you strip away the $400 million the state earmarked for school security, Tallahassee increased per pupil spending by a paltry 47 cents in 2018-19. That’s the extra amount each district will have to address teacher salaries and many other rising expenses.
So the district has been forced to go hat in hand to the county and request it chip in $2 million to help pay for the additional resource officers. County Manager Jim Dinneen says that’s doable if he shifts money from other areas. However, Sheriff Mike Chitwood, whose office supplies the SROs, is concerned he lacks the manpower to meet the district’s request. He says he already has more than 40 vacant positions for regular law enforcement, and that adding SROs to the equation would increase his budget by a whopping $8.5 million.
There’s a cheaper way to comply with the state mandate: Adopt the new Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program. Named after the faculty member who was killed in the Parkland shooting while protecting students, the program trains and certifies eligible school employees (although not full-time classroom teachers) to be armed on campus. The Legislature allocated $67 million for districts that choose to participate.
Because the idea of arming civilian school employees is highly controversial, few districts have applied for the funding. Volusia County has yet to officially make a decision, but some School Board members have expressed skepticism about the program, and public opinion appears split.
Officials shouldn’t join the guardian program for purely financial reasons. Schools should arm employees only if they strongly believe that’s the most effective deterrent to a shooter, not because it’s all they can afford.
The lack of support for the guardian program statewide means that a chunk of that $67 million appropriation will go unused. That leftover money should be shifted to funding more SROs.
Meanwhile, the Legislature needs to make its own choice: If it creates a mandate, it should fully fund it; and if it can’t fully fund something, it shouldn’t make it mandatory.