Security Services ESP — 
Building a Quality Workforce

Budget Issues, Politics and School Security

 As school security forces have shifted from disciplinarians to uniformed and armed police, the need for funding and resources for more, better trained, and better equipped security officers has increased tremendously. But given budget crunches everywhere, the money doesn't promise to materialize any time soon. Without funding and resources, Security Services ESP will have trouble staying current and viable.

Some of the factors driving the need for increased money and resources are:

• the advent of "terror" as one of the threats now relevant to school campuses,
• increased concern about attack in schools from biochemical hazards and weapons,
• much higher profile regarding disease as a weapon or epidemic (SARS),
• new and expanded federal mandates such as NCLB (ESEA), the Homeland Security Act, including a national Alert System, and the Patriot Act,
• and the complete disregard for any responsibility by the federal government to provide funding to the states for any of these new mandates.

Funding of public education and all its components is always a major struggle. But it is especially important for security to receive adequate funding, because crime prevention is completely about visibility and skill. It has been shown time and time again that the more security officers or police are present, the safer the area. Cutting the number of security services personnel is often the solution when funding is short or nonexistent, a solution that ignores the direct correlation to decreased safety and security for the school environment.

In 2000, President Clinton announced that $120 million would be available in new grants to place more security services personnel directly in schools. The grants were given to community police departments to provide full-time officers to the schools. The COPS in Schools Program, which provided more than 452 officers in 220 communities across the country within one year of its passage, had 100% funding for three years. In communities all over the country sorely needed security officers in schools became a reality. This program was good news for schools. Unfortunately, since 2000, protection from terror attacks has swept away other priorities in schools, and the COPS In Schools Program has expired with no hope of reinstatement.

It is interesting to note that the most sweeping education law to come out of Washington in the last 50 years, the No Child Left Behind Act, came with virtually no funding for all the new mandates. The same sad story is true of the Homeland Security Act. Sweeping legislation and mandates to states from the federal government regarding all aspects of safety and security in schools is included, along with the "National Alert System." Schools have been identified under the Act as part of the "critical infrastructure." This designation makes them eligible for some federal grant funding for school security, but much of that money, when obtained, so far is being funneled to what are perceived to be more pressing needs, according to an article in the New York Times in February, 2003. In fact, the cost for communities under the Homeland Security Act is so expensive that any money obtained for security has been spent long before it gets to its destination. According to the same New York Times article, New York City’s added costs ran to $5 million a week during the Code Orange in April 2003. When Code Orange is declared, the mandated requirements for schools all over the country regarding increased security become almost impossible to comply with.

According to the latest estimates by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, at least "32 states face staggering budget deficits -- California's $34 billion, New York's $12 billion, Wisconsin's at $3.1 billion, and Texas anticipating a $10 billion shortfall."

In a recent study by the National Conference of State Legislatures, 41 states report a cumulative shortfall of $78.4 billion as they begin crafting state budgets for fiscal 2004. In New York, Gov. Pataki has just proposed slashing education funding by $1 billion, and Oregon has just struck a deal with teachers to teach for free for 15 days of the school calendar. In New York, California, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, officials ready layoff notices. Cities and towns raise property taxes, and school boards initiate reductions in force. At state and county colleges and universities, tuition climbs and staff are laid off.

Clearly there is a storm brewing for all public education and Security Services will not be exempt from the damage. School administrations must become more in tune to the training and resource needs of Security Services ESP if we have any chance at all of weathering these next few years. These employees are the "first responders" on a school campus and need support, training, and resources in order to continue the competent and responsible job they do.

To Section 8: Health & Safety -- Protecting the Individual Employee