For first time, lawmakers poised to spend state money to hire officers for SC schools

The S.C. House is preparing to add money to the state's $8.2 billion proposed budget to hire school resource officers. It would be the first time that state money has gone to hiring SROs.

House budget writers Wednesday did not say definitively how much state money would be added for the officers in the state's general fund budget, which takes effect July 1.

But the amount — potentially $2 million — is unlikely to meet Gov. Henry McMaster's January request for $5 million.

Neither the House nor the Senate budget proposals now include any money for SROs. But House budget chairman Brian White, R-Anderson, said Wednesday it is a House priority to add the money in before budget negotiations next month.

"We are looking at (paying for) school resource officers but also other security measures," said White, adding the House could amend the budget as early as Thursday. "It could be metal detectors or even film that goes on windows to make them bullet resistant."

No state money now goes to pay school resource officers. Instead, that cost is paid at the local level — by school districts, county sheriff's departments, local governments and their taxpayers.

That means some of the state's poorest school districts do not have a trained officer, leaving them vulnerable, said state Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, chairman of the House budget panel on law enforcement.

Pitts, a former police officer, said he supports adding money to the state budget to hire school officers if the "plan is done properly, and we know exactly where those school resource officers are going."

About 590 of the state's 1,195 public schools do not have a trained officer on site. Also, in some cases, an officer serves more than one school.

In his executive budget proposal, McMaster — who is running for election — asked the Legislature to spend $5 million to cover hiring and training school officers. The Columbia Republican repeated that request at a March school safety summit, two weeks after 17 Parkland, Fla., students and teachers were killed by a lone gunman on Valentine's Day.

However, McMaster's request would hardly cover the up to $60 million cost of putting an officer in every public school.

Any money the S.C. House suggests also will not fully cover the cost of hiring officers for all schools.

Most South Carolinians — eight in 10 — want an armed officer in every school, according to the most recent Winthrop Poll. Sixty-nine percent of those polled — including 74 percent of S.C. gun owners — said they would support a tax increase to hire more school officers, if needed.

"We are looking at (adding money) for school resource officers," Rep. White said Wednesday. "But we have to balance the budget, so that's what we're working on now."

This story was originally published April 25, 2018 at 5:18 PM with the headline "For first time, lawmakers poised to spend state money to hire officers for SC schools."