Governor Snyder has proposed spending $20 million in grants to upgrade Michigan’s school in their attempt to make our schools safer.

These upgrades will include but are not limited to:

  • hardening our schools via lock systems
  • improved radio communication
  • expanding a student tip line to report threats
  • and requiring schools to incorporate behavioral health assessments into their procedures.

In an interview with the AP Governor Snyder is quoted as saying:

This is a terrible national crisis. We’ve done good things, but I think we can do more…What I wanted to do to start this, though, was not make it about guns but to make it about the schools and school safety and how to protect our students and people working in the schools…Because there’s a lot of good things we can just start now or reinforce now that are already out there.

The additional $20 million in grants is on top of the $2 million Michigan allocated in 2017 and the $4.5 million spent in 2015.

Governor Snyder also proposed tripling the budget of the OK2Say program to $1.3 million.  He believes this would increase student awareness and give them more funding to hire additional analysts.  This line receives and processes phoned in tips that are then forwarded to schools officials and law enforcement. Governor Snyder would also like to fund a $2 million pilot grant program to “train teams of school administrators, school resource officers and others to help identify students who pose a threat to themselves and others”.

Anytime our government wants to spend our taxpayer funds we must ask the following question; will these taxpayer dollars do what the goal of the program states.  Will these additional funds stop a potential shooter?

I do not know the answer to that question, I do not believe anyone can answer that question.  They are our children and we should do whatever possible to keep them safe.  One of the main responsibilities everyone can agree upon is that government’s number one duty is to keep us safe.

That said we need to make sure people are actually looking to solve the root of the problem and not just the consequences of that problem.  What is the main driver that is making students and adults feel the need to shoot so many innocent people and not just take themselves out if they have a problem with society?

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