House OKs school security bill with grants that could pay for training, guns for armed staff
House Republican lawmakers passed a school security bill Wednesday that would create a new grant program for schools to help pay for training and other costs associated with arming staff members — and could be used to pay for guns.
The bill would also require schools to complete safety reviews, create a task force to make recommendations for new building code standards for school safety and create a pilot grant program for schools that want to integrate gun detection software with their security cameras.
House lawmakers voted 59-35 Wednesday to pass House File 2652, sending it to the Iowa Senate. All but one Republican voted in favor, while Rep. Mark Cisneros, R-Muscatine, joined every Democrat in opposition.
The legislation is part of legislative Republicans' response to the deadly Jan. 4 shooting at Perry High School.
"No parent should have to worry about their student’s safety, no spouse should have to worry about their significant other coming home from a day of teaching," said the bill's floor manager, Rep. Carter Nordman, R-Panora. "Schools should be a place for students and teachers to grow and learn. This bill in front of us offers solutions."
The measure comes after the House passed a separate bill on Feb. 29 that would allow teachers and other school staff to obtain a professional permit to carry guns on school grounds and provide them with legal immunity for the use of reasonable force.
More: Iowa Republicans move closer to arming school staff and giving them legal immunity in shootings
Nordman pointed to a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll that found 60% of Iowans and 65% of parents with children younger than 18 favor allowing teachers and school staff to carry guns in school if they complete training.
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said Democrats support school safety but oppose the bill because the grant program could allow taxpayer money to pay for guns for school staff.
"I have concerns fundamentally about spending taxpayer dollars to put more guns in our schools," she said.
Grant program could be used to pay for training, guns for armed school staff
School districts would be limited to grants of $25,000, under the bill. They could use the money to purchase infrastructure and equipment related to arming staff, or to facilitate the required staff training.
Schools could also use the money to "provide stipends to employees who participate in the training associated with employee permits to carry weapons," the bill states.
An earlier version of the legislation budgeted $3 million for the grant program, but Republicans amended the bill to take out the specific dollar amount. The legislation now states the grants "shall consist of moneys appropriated by the general assembly."
"If that program were to be funded at a later date, would the moneys from that program be able to be used by school boards to buy guns?" Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, asked Nordman during debate.
"If a school board decides to, that would be an option," Nordman said. "I would foresee school boards using it for other reasons before that."
Nordman said the $3 million would serve as "a starting point" for lawmakers as they decide how much funding to put into the program later in the legislative session.
More: Iowa Poll: After Perry High shooting, most Iowans favor letting teachers have guns in school
What else would the House's school security bill do?
The bill would also require school districts to conduct school safety reviews and share the results with law enforcement, create a task force to review school infrastructure safety and security standards and require schools to have emergency radios that are capable of contacting law enforcement.
The task force would include state and local law enforcement officials, superintendents, a private school president, school board members, building contractors, the state building commissioner and an official from the state Department of Education. The group would be required to submit its findings to lawmakers by the end of the year.
Schools would be required to meet the building safety standards before they could issue bonds for new building construction or renovation of athletic buildings.
The bill also spends $3 million on a firearm detection software pilot grant program. The software would be integrated with the school district's existing security cameras and have to be able to alert school employees and law enforcement if there is a visible un-holstered gun on school property.
The money for the grant would come from the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management's E911 program.
Cisneros, the Republican who opposed the bill, objected to the bill's requirement that companies offering the gun detection software must receive a special designation from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He said there are companies in Iowa doing similar work that should be allowed to compete for the grant.
The bill also requires every school building to have at least one emergency radio capable of contacting law enforcement by the 2025-26 school year. Nordman said Gov. Kim Reynolds plans to use federal American Rescue Plan to pay for the radios.
House votes to let Perry give retention bonuses to staff, waive graduation requirements
On Tuesday, House lawmakers passed another bill, House File 2653, which would allow the Perry school district, which suspended classes for weeks after the shooting, to waive state requirements for instruction time. The bill would also allow Perry to use existing funds to pay one-time retention bonuses to school staff.
"As Perry has talked with other schools that have experienced similar tragedies, teacher retention has been one of their toughest hurdles. By allowing these bonuses, it is Perry's hope that they can mitigate losing teachers and staff over the next year," Nordman said.
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa House passes bill with grants to help schools pay for armed staff