Gov. Rick Scott's effort to increase school security money falls short

Gov. Rick Scott had a victory on the education front when the final budget included an increase in state spending by $100 per student next fall.

However, one of his promises related to school spending fell by the wayside: an increase in spending on school security.

Specifically, Scott promised during his 2014 reelection campaign "to increase school security by $10 million to over $74 million."

Scott was referring to the Safe Schools Allocation, an annual fund allocated to public school districts to spend on programs related to safety. The money can be spent on a variety of programs and personnel including school resource officers and programs to correct behavior and bullying prevention.

Each school district gets $250,000, and the remainder is allocated based on a formula that takes into account crime statistics and student enrollment.

The Safe Schools Allocation has existed for more than a decade. The total pot remained at $75 million for several years until it dropped during the economic downturn, which started under Scott's predecessor, Gov. Charlie Crist.

In the 2010-11 fiscal year (over which Scott did not have control), the total was about $67 million. In Scott's first budget, it dropped to $64.5 million for 2011-12. It stayed at that level for the next few years.

SB 2500 provided the same amount of $64.5 million for the 2017-18 school year. Scott signed the bill June 2.

(Unrelated to his promise, Scott did sign a bill that provided money for the first time for security at private Jewish schools.)

Scott has one more session next year to achieve this promise related to public schools, but so far he has struck out. We rate this Promise Broken.