More school safety funding to come, NC lawmakers say

As attention turns, again, to school violence, state lawmakers say they will take time to sort through policy options and funding boosts

Posted 10:25 p.m. Feb 9, 2023 — Updated 12:17 a.m. Feb 10, 2023

Travis Fain, WRAL state government reporter,

and

Laura Leslie, WRAL capitol bureau chief

Expect more school safety funding in the next state budget, the North Carolina Senate’s top leader said Thursday.

Lawmakers will also consider policy changes, though it may be months before consensus emerges on detailed proposals.

Interest is high. After a rash of threats and lockdowns, Wake County’s school board called on lawmakers this week to pass a new law requiring safe storage of firearms and for more funding to support safety measures. The board kept its requests purposefully vague, with members saying a detailed request will take time to write.

Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead called Thursday for metal detectors in every school there after a near-campus shooting there left one high school student dead and another injured.

Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger said he senses interest at the statehouse in boosting school security funding, something lawmakers did last year as well. Those conversations will be part of the budget process, which is just getting underway and will likely wrap up some time before July 1, the beginning of a new state fiscal year.

“I’m sure we'll have legislation moving on some of the safety issues,” said Berger, R-Rockingham. “But remember, a lot of the things that we deal with that have to do with money necessarily need to be dealt with in the budget.”

The state legislature has spent much of its time in the early weeks of this session on bills that passed the Republican-controlled General Assembly last year but Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed. That includes a measure requiring teachers to tell parents if a student is questioning their gender as well as limiting discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools, which passed the Senate this week.

On Wednesday the House passed a bill boosting penalties for rioting, a top priority for chamber leadership.

Sen. Amy Galey, who sponsored the LGBTQ bill, said she and other lawmakers care deeply about school safety, but that it’s going to take time for ideas to come together, particularly when they need new funding.

“A lot of people would like to see more [school resource officers] in the schools,” said Galey, R-Alamance. “I know that people in Alamance County are really concerned about SROs and having those school resource officers in place, and often funding is an issue for that.”

Research on the effectiveness of police officers in schools, though, finds mixed results, according to Pauline Moore, a political scientist at the Rand Corp. who studies violence and school security. Moore told WRAL News that it’s often hard to say what works at all.

“What works and doesn't work is going to vary pretty significantly across different school contexts, whether we're talking about geographical location, different student demographics, the physical layout of a school, for example,” Moore said.

“There are also some really significant challenges to … really linking the impact of a security measure to an event that did not occur,” Moore said.

For years state lawmakers have funded school safety grants that districts can apply for, but the Republican majority has not been interested in passing new statewide gun restrictions that Democrats have repeatedly proposed in response to school shootings. The GOP majority also has stayed away from bills that would allow armed security guards in school buildings, or arm teachers, though lawmakers on the party's right flank have called for this.

Last year's state budget increased the state's share of school resource officer funding in low-wealth districts, and it nearly doubled what the state spends on school officers to $33 million.

It included $205,000 for two new mental health professionals to assist the State Bureau of Investigation with an increase in referrals from school resource officers and local law enforcement, and it boosted school safety grants.

The North Carolina Center for Safer Schools gave out $74 million in those grants last fall, but demand was such that “we can’t give everybody everything they wanted,” the group’s executive director, Karen Fairley, said.

The state’s Department of Public Instruction said it funded about 70% of requests.

The governor backs a number of new gun restrictions but, with the General Assembly opposed, his administration has called for a focus on safe gun storage. Cooper’s deputy secretary for juvenile justice told a gathering of police chiefs last July that many people bought their first gun during the pandemic and that, often when a young person hurts someone with a gun, the weapon came from their home or a relative’s.

He also said some children got guns out of unlocked cars, and that the state was planning a series of public service announcements on safe storage.

That campaign should begin this spring or early summer, a spokesperson for Cooper’s Department of Public Safety said Thursday. A contract to create and implement the campaign was recently awarded, she said in an email.

Legislative Republicans filed a bill last week along the same lines, laying out a two-year public awareness campaign. Another Republican bill calls for tax breaks for people who buy gun safes or trigger locks.

Neither bill would require people to use gun safes or other safe storage measures. Asked whether lawmakers might require that, state Rep. Erin Paré, a sponsor on the tax break bill, said she’s focused on bills that can pass and be enforced.

“We need to as lawmakers always be mindful of what laws are enforceable,” the Wake County Republican said. “I think for this right now, this is a good way to highlight the need for firearm gun owners to secure their firearms.”

WRAL Education Reporter Emily Walkenhorst contributed to this report.

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