Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne says he is reprioritizing an $80 million grant program that is used mainly by Arizona public schools to receive funding to pay for school counselors.
The Superintendent will now target the money to pay for armed police officers or security on school campuses.
In just a three-week period, there have been at least five threats at Arizona public schools, including three incidents where students were arrested for possessing guns on campus.
"The first priority has to be the safety of the students and we don't want a situation where 20 or 30 students are killed because no one was there to defend them," Horne said.
The superintendent says across the state, the number of school threats is up. So, Horne is reprioritizing where the school safety grant money goes.
First established in 2019, the grant could pay for school counselors or police protection. Now if a school doesn't have armed security already in place, requests for counselors will be denied.
"Usually, I can understand both sides of an issue," Horne said. "But I can't understand how anybody doesn't understand how important it is that we be sure we don't have any massacres in Arizona."
Many districts opted to use the grant money to pay for school counselors. According to the American School Counselor Association, Arizona ranks last in the nation with one counselor for every 716 students.
Tolleson Union High School District Board member Devin Del Palacio says school districts should be allowed to make the choice between counselors and cops.
"Removing millions and millions of dollars from what I think are great preventative tools is backwards. And I'll also say this, for schools that want school resource officers, there are programs and grants available at the federal level that already pay for it."
Tom Horne says any delay in his goal to have every school equipped with a law enforcement officer leaves them more vulnerable to a tragic catastrophe.
