New Ulm Journal: School security legislation touted for bipartisan interest

Legislative bills to provide funds for all Minnesota schools to add more security measures in their buildings are moving forward with bipartisan interest and support from a variety of faith leaders.

“Both public and private schools should have the resources they need to keep their students and staff safe. There is strong bipartisan interest to create safer school environments because that is important to everyone,” said Dist. 15B Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska.

The need for student safety was urged in a Feb. 20 letter to the House Education Finance Committee from seven faith leaders including Minnesota Catholic Conference Executive Director Jason Adkins and Lutheran Schools Executive Sean Martens.

Since 2020, private schools have been advocating to be part of the Safe Schools Program that provides funding to school districts for emergency response training, security upgrades, mental health services and security resources. This legislative was reintroduced this year under House File 3493, among several bills appropriating funding for safe schools.

“Legislation aimed to protect and allocate funding to some schools but not all only makes the schools who are unfunded as vulnerable against future tragedies. This is unacceptable,” read the letter.

Minnesota House Bills 3529 and 3493 were among those introduced and first read in the House and referred to the House Education Finance Committee Feb. 19.

Safe schools revenue must be reserved and used for funding 10 a drug abuse prevention program in elementary schools, gang resistance education training curriculum, voluntary opt-in suicide prevention tools, violence prevention measures, licensed school counselors, nurses and psychologists, facility enhancements including laminated glass, emergency communications devices, mental health services delivered by tele-medicine and cybersecurity measures.

Senate File 3930 was introduced and first read in the Senate and referred to the Senate Education Finance Committee Feb. 26.

The bill aims to enhance education finance in Minnesota by increasing safe schools revenue and expanding school schools aid to include charter and non-public schools. It mandates non-public schools receiving funds to prepare annual reports detailing expenditures on qualifying safety activities.

Legislation with bigger movement challenges include a bill to establish an independent Office of Inspector General (OIG) with investigative power and enforcement authority, not subject to direction or intervention by state agencies, is fully opposed by House Democrats, Torkelson said.

He said another bill bans the sale, transfer and possession of nearly all semi-automatic, military-style rifles in Minnesota and provided criminal penalties. The bill was introduced and sent to the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee Feb. 17.

Torkelson said another bill limits firearms magazine capacity to 10 rounds.

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Read the full article at the New Ulm Journal.