Q&A – The Cost of Armed Security for All Schools in the United States

What’s being called for in today’s note is exactly the type of response that I believe we need to see, a federal response to bring Florida styled-security to all K-12 school campuses.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
You have questions, Brian has answers. It's time for today's
Q and A of today. This is the Brian Mud Show.
Today's Q and A the cost of armed security for
all schools in the United States. This is brought to
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(00:23):
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(00:46):
shellman did.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hi, Brian, this is Frank from grin Falls, Ohio. After
this last school shooting, the idea of using retired military
personnel security guards. Why could they not use the Department
of Education budget which is being done away with to

(01:11):
pay for it since it would only be a fraction
of that budget.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, first of all, I love this idea, appreciate the note.
My top takeaway in the wake of the horrific attack
on school children attending mass before school in Minneapolis included.
This has said since the horrific massacre at Stuema Douglas
in twenty eighteen and the subsequent passage of the Marjorie

(01:37):
Stoneman Douglas Safety Act, there have sadly and remarkably been
two hundred and twenty eight shootings on school campuses resulting
in debts or injuries, with thirty seven children who have
been killed, along with ten teachers. None of these have
occurred in Florida, the third most popular state. And did

(01:57):
you know that in the first semester in Florida twenty
twenty four twenty five school year, fifty five arrests were
made based on threats to harm children in schools. The
combination of a mandatory armed law enforcement presence and extensive
proactiveness by law enforcement as is compelled under Florida law.
We've seen it's been seven and a half years since

(02:19):
horror has struck any school campuses in our state. Florida's
example should be the country's example, and if states won't
do it takes to protect children in school, the federal
government should step in and pass federal policy to see
that they do. It's clear what does and doesn't work,
and I don't understand why more states won't do what
it takes to protect children and educators at school. So

(02:43):
what's being called for in today's note is exactly the
type of response that I believe we need to see
a federal response to bring Florida styled security to all
K through twelve school campuses. So about that. Here's what
it might look like if implemented through the US Department
of Education. There is a study entitled the Cost of

(03:03):
Arming Schools the Price of Stopping a bad Guy with
the Gun that was conducted by a Cleveland State University professor.
It evaluated the total annual cost of implementing at least
one armed security professional at every grade school across the country. Now,
this was the study conducted last decade. I took a

(03:25):
look at the current school account and then adjusted that
research for inflation to come up with what it would
look like right now. We have approximately one hundred and
twenty nine thousand K through twelve schools in this country.
The average cost of a school resource officer to keep
them in place throughout the year one hundred and twelve

(03:47):
thousand dollars. That brings the total annual cost at a
minimum to around fourteen point four to five billion dollars. Now,
it's worth noting that this dozen't take into account Florida's law,
which states that there must be one resource officer per
one thousand students, thus creating higher costs for large schools. Now,

(04:10):
just over eighty percent of grade schools nationally do have
fewer than a thousand students. If we applied Florida standard
to the law, the total cost would rise to about
seventeen point three billion dollars. So that's the ranging costs
we would be looking at to make this happen. Some
are the neighborhood of fourteen and a half billion to
seventeen point three billion annually. Now what does that look like. Well,

(04:34):
the US Department of Education budget most recently checked in
at one hundred and three billion dollars. So this means
that armed security could be provided to all grade schools
in the country for only fourteen to sixteen point eight
percent of the existing spending of the Department of Education.

(04:54):
So with a scale down department under the Trump administration,
with an eye towards ending the Department altogether by the
end of his presidency. Boy, it's sure would seem to
be exceedingly feasible to take the step. So hopefully this
is an idea that catches on. Hopefully this is something
that's acted on at the federal level. You know, Florida's

(05:15):
model over the past seven and a half years has
proven to be extremely effective and combating would be school
shooters in our state. And sadly, what's been clear since
the Combine attack in April of ninety nine is that
mentally unwealth people bent on evil will take advantage of
the soft targets schools to represent without enhanced security. Something

(05:37):
else that I've done a lot of research on over
the years, and that I'm a huge advocate of metal detectors.
You take a look at the combination of metal detectors
and arms school resource officers that has proven to be
one hundred percent effective in combating school shootings today. Pretty
good record, So to me, it's a no brainer, and

(05:58):
hopefully that's what the FED see too.