Texas lawmakers evaluate increasing funding for school safety measures.

Texas school districts have been facing financial hurdles since the enactment of a 2023 law mandating an armed officer at every campus. In response, school districts have consistently requested additional state funding to meet these requirements.

During the recent legislative session, state lawmakers promised to enhance school safety funding. The law, House Bill 3, raised the annual safety funding to $10 per student and allocated $15,000 for each school within a district.

The crucial question for legislators this session is whether they can raise this amount to the $100 per student that districts argue is essential to adequately cover the associated costs.

The impetus for HB 3 was a tragic school shooting in Uvalde in 2022 that resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two educators. However, as noted in a report from the Senate Education Committee, more than half of Texas school districts are unable to meet the requirement for one armed officer per school.

District leaders have criticized HB 3 as an unfunded mandate, claiming that the funding increase simply addresses a fraction of what is required to employ full-time security personnel across all schools.

The potential for heightened funding has been a topic of discussion this session. In his State of the State address, Governor Greg Abbott proposed that the Legislature allocate an extra $500 million for school safety initiatives. Both proposed budgets for the House and Senate for the years 2026 and 2027 aim to boost school safety funding by an additional $400 million over the next two years.

Still, many school administrators argue that this proposed increase is inadequate. Furthermore, a nationwide shortage of law enforcement makes it problematic to staff armed officers at every school.

“We would invest every available dollar to ensure the safety of our children and staff if we had the chance,” stated Zack Kleypas, superintendent of Thorndale Independent School District. “If it’s clear that we need this, please provide the necessary funding.”

House Bill 3, signed into law in June 2023, adjusted safety funding allocations to $10 per student from a previous $9.72 and provided an additional $15,000 per campus. Additionally, the law allocated a one-time budget of $1.1 billion from the Texas Education Agency to be distributed to districts for school safety enhancements.

A typical Texas elementary school, with approximately 600 students, would receive about $21,000 annually from this safety allotment, a figure that falls short of the estimated $60,000 to $70,000 officials claim is necessary to maintain an armed guard each year.

In addition to the funding for armed guards, the law introduced new measures, including mandatory “mental health first-aid training” for certain school personnel and greater authority for the state to enforce active-shooter preparedness plans.

Despite receiving bipartisan support, the legislation has faced critique. Some legislators expressed concerns that requiring armed officers in schools could pose a risk to safety rather than enhance it. A 2021 study by The Violence Project indicated that the presence of armed guards did not lead to a decrease in gun-related incidents.

Efforts to strengthen Texas’ gun laws during this legislative session were unsuccessful, leaving grieving Uvalde families disheartened, as a proposal aimed at raising the minimum age for the purchase of semi-automatic rifles was rejected.

Without additional funding provisions since HB 3’s implementation, several school districts have opted for “good cause exceptions” to the armed officer mandate. This allows districts to employ school marshals or safety-trained staff carrying handguns instead of full-time officers.

Kleypas noted that his district, catering to about 600 students in a rural region 45 miles northeast of Austin, would hire armed guards at all three schools if they received significantly more than the approximately $50,000 allocated from the safety allotment each year.

Presently, the district participates in the Texas School Guardian Program, which allows about ten safety-trained employees access to firearms owned by the district. Kleypas remarked that he would prefer dedicated armed guards at each school, rather than placing additional burdens on employees who already have their primary tasks.

With proposed budget allocations for 2026 and 2027, there is potential for increased funding for school safety this session. Lawmakers from both parties have introduced measures advocating for enhanced spending. Nevertheless, the extent of the increase remains to be decided.

Legislation proposed by Sen. Joan Huffman, a Republican from Houston, aims to double the current school safety allotment, granting $20 per student and $30,000 per campus annually. Huffman, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, includes this proposed funding in the Senate’s budget for the upcoming two years.

Earlier in the session, she sought an $800 million enhancement to safety funding, which passed the Senate but failed to progress in the House. A comparable bill proposing $1.3 billion faced similar challenges. In the final special session that year, crucial safety funding increases were also overlooked as legislators focused on other priorities.

“I’ve made it my objective to treat the enhancement of school safety funding as distinct from other educational policy matters,” Huffman communicated in a statement. “I am optimistic that both chambers will support increased funding for school safety.”

Sen. José Menéndez, a Democrat from San Antonio, reiterated his belief that there is a growing interest in elevating the allotment this legislative period, having previously proposed raising it to $100 per student before the passage of HB 3.

Additional proposals this session aim to allocate even more funds for school safety. One initiative from Sen. Royce West, a Democrat from Dallas, would provide districts with $100 per student and $60,000 per campus to strengthen the safety allotment. West clarified that this figure is a starting point for discussions.

Superintendent Martha Salazar-Zamora of Tomball Independent School District emphasized the necessity for about $100 per student and $30,000 per campus to adequately fund armed officer requirements mandated by HB 3. Her district currently employs an armed officer at each of its 22 schools but has to cover $2.1 million from its own funds to meet the expenses.

Although she considers proposals to double the funding an excellent initial step, it still falls short of the actual financial needs. Tomball ISD receives roughly half a million dollars annually from the allotment and has struggled with deficit budgets over the last two school years, attributing part of this to the mandates imposed by HB 3.

In the latter part of 2023, several Texas school districts reported they would also face deficits in their budgets due to the need to comply with HB 3, coupled with rising operational costs. “This isn’t due to mismanagement of funds,” Salazar-Zamora, also the president of the Texas Association of School Administrators, stated. “It stemmed from more unfunded mandates.”

John Craft, the superintendent of Northside Independent School District, echoed a similar sentiment. While they have sufficient funding to maintain an armed guard at each campus, the district often resorts to using general funds to cover costs, a frequent situation in Texas.

Craft detailed that complying with HB 3 costs his district over $10 million. Although the nearly $3 million received from the safety allotment is beneficial, he noted that this still does not bridge the funding gap—he asserted that increasing the per-student allocation to $100 would resolve this shortfall.

However, Northside ISD faces yet another challenge: a shortage of officers. Craft reported about 36 officer vacancies across their 132 campuses, underscoring that local law enforcement shortages have made staffing schools challenging.

This issue extends beyond just Northside ISD, revealing a broader problem throughout Texas. The struggle to find qualified law enforcement personnel has complicated adherence to HB 3 for many districts.

Amanda Brownson, deputy executive director of the Texas Association of School Business Officials, explained that the law has prompted numerous districts to seek the same type of personnel concurrently. “Often, there simply aren’t enough candidates available,” she remarked.

Recent years have spotlighted recruitment challenges within law enforcement, both in Texas and nationwide. Although hiring did see an uptick in 2023, many local agencies still grapple with staffing shortages. For example, the Austin Police Association indicated it faces significant challenges in filling numerous vacancies.

At Hays CISD, located around 20 miles south of Austin, Superintendent Eric Wright noted that while the district is financially equipped to fund armed guards across all 26 schools, they only have full-time officers assigned to 16 of them due to local law enforcement shortages.

Jeri Skrocki, the director of safety and security at Hays CISD, advised that state legislators should engage with local law enforcement agencies to gain better insights into their recruitment challenges. “Even if there were noble intentions behind the decision to have officers in every school, the reality is that local law enforcement agencies across Texas and the nation face difficulties in recruiting qualified candidates,” Skrocki stated.