Conferees keep $5 million for 'Safe and Secure' school grants in 2025, plan transfer of firearm-detection program to attorney general

Conferees on the Committee on Appropriations said the committee will maintain $5,000,000 in state general funds for the Safe and Secure school grants in fiscal 2025 and that the committee's education package designates those monies for public schools for three years.

Vice Chair Williams said the committee retained the addition of $5,000,000 SGF for Safe and Secure in 2025 and clarified the newer, recurring subscription funding would be limited to public K'12 schools for three years. "If schools want to continue with the subscription, they can do that themselves," Williams said. She also said the committee removed an earlier $3,500,000 addition from its offer and that the committee consulted the attorney general's office after the governor deleted proviso language that previously specified how funds must be spent.

Conferees discussed a separate Safe and Secure firearm-detection grant that is administratively located in the Office of the Attorney General and not in the Department of Education. Representative Ballard asked whether the money would transfer to the attorney general's office; a conferee answered yes and said the attorney general's office would decide distribution among the state's 286 school districts.

The committee also discussed a proposal to track and label funding that is "above Gannon" (i.e., dollars outside the state school finance formula and the Gannon settlement obligations). Vice Chair Williams described an effort to identify all state dollars that are not in the finance formula so the legislature can show expenditures "above and beyond" constitutional obligations; she estimated "more than a hundred and 30,000,000" as an aggregate figure to be tracked. Members expressed differing views on what the Gannon ruling includes: some senators said mentor teaching and teacher excellence had been counted within Gannon-related commitments, while others said those items should be tracked separately.

Committee members cautioned that implementation timelines for new curriculum or subscription-based programs may delay any measurable outcomes; one conferee noted an RFP process could delay deployment and therefore reporting to the legislature. Conferees said the education package will include final language from the reviser's office before it is formally introduced on the floor.

Ending: Committee members said they will monitor implementation details and tracking language for above-Gannon funding as they finalize the education package for floor negotiations.