The head of Arizona’s public school system wants to hire hundreds of new counselors and school resource officers.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is asking state lawmakers to grant the School Safety Program an extra $40 million to do that. That new funding number is based on grant requests from school districts to the Arizona Department of Education.
Horne’s office says schools asked for more than 200 new counselors and social workers, and about 240 new police officers. With the additions, Horne wants to bring the total spending on the program to almost $190 million.
“I’ve worked very hard to emphasis to the schools and needs that they have both social workers and counselors but police officers to defend the safety of the students and the teachers and the staff," Horne said.
Similar legislation has been introduced at the capitol to create a School Safety Center and council to manage it.
“If the funding isn’t there to provide for them, and then a tragedy happens in one of those schools, that would be a terrible occurrence," Horne said.
Horne says no existing safety positions would be lost if the new funding isn’t provided.
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The Republican candidates for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction faced off in a primary election debate Thursday night. -
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