A new state mandate takes effect today in Texas for armed officers guarding every school in the state, but that goal is crashing into the reality of not enough money or police, the Associated Press reports. Dozens of Texas’ largest school districts, which educate many of the state’s 5 million students, are reopening classrooms without meeting the state’s new requirements of armed officers on every campus. The mandate is a pillar of a safety bill signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who rejected calls this year for gun control despite angry pleas from parents of children killed in the Uvalde school massacre. Texas has nearly 9,000 public school campuses, second only to California, making the requirement the largest of its kind in the U.S. “We all support the idea,” said Stephanie Elizalde, superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District, which has more than 140,000 students. “The biggest challenge for all superintendents is that this is yet again an unfunded mandate.”
The new Texas law allows exceptions but also does not require districts to report compliance, making it unclear how many schools are meeting the standard. The Associated Press contacted 60 of Texas’ largest school districts about whether they were able to start the school year in compliance. Not all districts responded and some declined to discuss staffing levels, citing security concerns. But statements to the AP, along with a review of school board meeting actions and statements made to local media, show at least half have been unable to comply with the law’s highest standard. Local school officials say the additional funding Texas gave districts under the new law, about $15,000 per campus, is hardly sufficient. In Dallas, Elizalde said an extra $75,000 is needed for each additional officer in Texas’ second-largest district. In the scramble to comply with Texas’ new standards, options some districts previously never considered are now on the table: Some are turning to private security firms or arming more staff and teachers.