Indiana House GOP tells Rep. Pfaff there is a price tag on school safety

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana House Republicans told State Rep. Tonya Pfaff (D-Terre Haute) today that they’ve put a price tag on the amount of money they are willing to spend to keep all schools safe across Indiana.

House Republicans rejected an amendment offered by Pfaff to House Bill 1225 that would enable school corporations to apply for grants from the state’s Secured School Fund without having to match the dollar amount. The current program requires school districts to provide matching dollars for any grant requests, preventing certain school districts from being eligible to apply for the grant. Pfaff’s amendment comes from recommendation number 14 in the 2018 Indiana School Safety Recommendations.

“Certain school corporations simply can’t afford to take advantage of this fund because of the requirement to provide a match,” Pfaff said.

“When we have plenty of money in the bank, I don’t think we need to be concerned about ‘limited paltry resources,’ as several of my Republican colleagues were during this debate. If we are worried about the funds running out, let’s simply provide more funds.”

House Republicans voted down the amendment because they’ve put a price tag on school safety, focusing their concern about the fund running out when our state is carrying a budget surplus of around $2 billion rather than giving all schools access to the funding. 

“To see this kind of argument used as an excuse to keep from giving schools the tools they need to keep our children safe in school is baffling to me,” she concluded.