Q&A – The Cost of Armed Security for All Schools in the United States
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station page in the iHeart app.
Today’s entry: Submitted via talkback: Hi Brian, this is Frank from Chagrin Falls, Ohio. After this last school shooting, the idea of using retired military personnel as security guards, why could they not use the Department of Education budget, which is being. Done away with to pay for it since it would only be a fraction. Of that budget of 2.
Bottom Line: First of all, I love this idea. My top takeaway last Thursday, in the wake of the horrific attack on school children attending mass before school in Minneapolis included this:
Since the horrific massacre at Stoneman Douglas in 2018, and the subsequent passage of the Majorie Stoneman Douglas Safety Act there have sadly and remarkably been 228 shootings on school campuses resulting in deaths or injuries with 37 children who’ve been killed along with 10 teachers. None of these have occurred in Florida, the third most populous state. Did you know that in the first semester in Florida’s 2024-2025 school year 55 arrests were made based on threats to harm children in schools? The combination of a mandatory, armed law enforcement presence and extensive proactiveness by law enforcement, as is compelled under Florida law, it’s been seven and a half years since horror has struck any school campuses in our state. Florida’s example should be the country’s example. If states won’t do what it takes to protect children in school...The federal government should step in and pass federal policy to see that they do. It’s clear what does and doesn’t work and I don’t understand why more states won’t do what it takes to protect children and educators at school.
What’s being called for in today’s note is exactly the type of response that I believe we need to see, a federal response to bring Florida styled-security to all K-12 school campuses. So about that... Here’s what that might look like if implemented through the U.S. Department of Education.
There was a study entitled: The Cost of Arming Schools: The Price of Stopping a Bad Guy with a Gun, conducted by a Cleveland State University professor that evaluated the total annual cost of implementing at least one-armed security professional at every grade school across the country. Adjusting for inflation the current number of grade schools across the country here’s what that looks like:
- Approximately 129,000 schools
- Average cost per school resource officer annually: $112,000
- Total annual cost: $14.45 billion
It’s worth noting that this doesn’t take into account Florida’s law which states that there must be one resource officer per 1,000 students – thus creating higher costs for large schools. Just over 80% of grade schools have fewer than 1,000 students. If we applied Florida’s standard to the law the total cost would rise to about $17.3 billion. So that’s the range in costs we’d be looking at: $14.45 to $17.3 billion annually.
The U.S. Department of Education budget most recently checked in at $103 billion. This means that armed security could be provided to all grade schools in the country for only 14% to 16.8% of the existing spending of the Department of Education. With a scaled down department under the Trump administration (with an eye towards ending the department altogether by the end of his presidency), it would seem exceedingly feasible to take this step.
Hopefully this idea catches on and is acted on at the federal level. Florida’s model over the past 7.5 years has proven to be exceedingly effective at combating would-be school shooters in our state. Sadly, what’s been clear since the Columbine attack in April of 1999, is that mentally unwell people bent on evil will take advantage of the soft targets' schools represent without enhanced security.
A combination of metal detectors and armed school resource officers have proven to be 100% effective in combating school shootings to date. It’s a no-brainer to me. Hopefully that’s what the feds see too.