House Bill # 34
This Act establishes the Delaware School Safety and Security Fund to allow eligible public schools to compete for grant awards to partially or fully fund projects intended to improve school safety or security
This Act is effective upon an annual appropriation in the Annual Appropriations Act.
This Act establishes the Delaware School Safety and Security Fund to allow all public schools to compete for grant awards, not to exceed $50,000 per school, to support projects intended to improve school safety or security.
The Department of Education will administer the grant program whereby a five-member committee consisting of one representative from each of the following entities: Department of Education, Department of Safety and Homeland Security, the Office of Management and Budget (who will serve as chair of the committee), the Office of the Governor, and the Delaware Association of School Administrators.
The School Safety and Security Fund is to initially be funded with $5,000,000 and subject to available appropriations thereafter.
Cost:
Fiscal Year 2014: $5,000,000
Fiscal Year 2015: Subject to available appropriation
Fiscal Year 2016 Subject to available appropriation
Certainly I don’t think state grants should just be handed out without knowing how they are going to be spent. However, competitions for extra funds to make our schools safer might send a wrong message. Furthermore, I think a special fund should be set up where the public and local business can make contributions and not in the direct control of the Delaware Department of Education.
Most of the public school districts list school security and safety on their referendum ballots. But certainly extra enhancements would increase school safety. If anything, budget funding for school security should come first before any administrative travel or wining and dining and retirement parties on the taxpayer’s dime.
Charter schools are the most vulnerable and don’t have the authority to hold referendums for such costly needs. This is onetime we can put the public vs charter school debate aside and address the funding disparities when it comes to building safety. Hopefully the charter school chiefs are aware of this legislation and weigh-in.
I think the idea is great and demonstrates our state legislators are trying to get creative in addressing school security concerns. But we must think of the equity issues in ensuring all schools including charter meet basic building security needs before providing extra funding for some schools to be more secure.
So question of the day for you, should our Delaware public and charter schools be required to compete for funds needed to make our public schools more secure and safe?
Filed under: Uncategorized
Weird, just plain weird. Why should school “compete”? Isn’t safety something that state should be doing no matter what? I don’t get this at all.
I imagine, next comes the plan where cities/towns compete for the police coverage. Or firefighters. Or rescuers. Or road maintenance. Under-performing places that have high rate of poverty or high crime rates or drug mafias or unemployed who cannot afford to pay healthcare or taxes will be put on probation and if not improved, will be forcefully removed so that the land they were trashing with their presence can be resold for building another golf course.
If we took safety serious, shouldn’t there be a basic standard established for what is safe, then an effort made to correlate that with the least safe areas schools are located in, and then prioritize any available funding to bring schools up to the standard according to those priorities?
And, yes, I would include charter schools in the overall listing and priorities list.
Yes Steve there is basic standard established and currently the Omnibus School Safety Act, which was a bill passed last year, is being implemented across the state. It requires a Comprehensive School Safety Plan for every school and the Dept of Homeland Security is assisting schools by doing a complete safety audit of each school and assisting them in the development of the plan. After this audit is done in alignment with these national standards, then I would think any needed improvements could be a special allocation in minor capital funding through the Bond Bill which both charters and traditional schools get.
Who wants to be the one to tell parents, God forbid even grieving parents: “Sorry, your school lost the safety funding contest?”
They are doing the same thing with the gifted funding. Schools must compete for grants. If we really cared about these issues we would fund them in every school. Quit making schools compete for limited term funding and then taking valuable programs away.
http://www.wdde.org/40486-gifted-programs-delaware-schools
LOL… we’re not too far from funding our schools on the “Hunger Games” model.
All i can picture after reading this is Coach Murphy in his high backed chair saying ‘Dance monkeys, dance..” while superintendents compete to try to get some money. And then the districts receive letters saying they didnt dance well enough so they have to redo their dances.
Everything that Steve said–and then–do you make sick people apply for treatment (no fine liners please w/ major procedures and insurance approvals
) ? No, you would treat people first to get them up to, or back to a reasonable sense of wellness.
Maybe “grant application” is a misnomer here–maybe they mean a priortized needs list is where the $ will be designated. That way, those buildings that have everything but the full body scanner, can wait in line perhaps behind the building that hasn’t had a lock changed in 19 years, and “everyone” has a key. Or they get in thru the cafeteria loading dock, where it’s always open, or maybe finish knocking out the rest of the window to match the other 11 halfway busted out. Just a thought.
Or then again, 50K for the “consultant and then the…….” doesn’t go real far these days. Huh gang?!
I need to retire….sooner rather than later. Education has never been perfect but boy it has been destroyed
competitive grants are working so well now, lets do more!
Insane.
charter schools should be able to innovate themselves to safety no?