Years before the shooting in Minneapolis on Aug. 27 that ended the lives of two young Catholic school students, religious and education leaders in the city pleaded for additional state funding to keep their campuses safe.
They never got it. The reasons why are complicated: For one, the state legislature never passed the bill that would've enacted the funding (public schools didn't get the money, either). Lawmakers reintroduced the legislation this year, and it's still pending.
The situation highlights another dynamic in American schools: the idea of investing public money in non-public schools, particularly religious ones, often stokes controversy. In the meantime, no school, public or private, seems entirely free from the risk of a shooting. That fact has prompted some private school leaders to push for security resources on par with their public school counterparts.
Read more: How shootings upend US schools – even where there’s no gunfire
"Funding and grant programs should be structured to ensure equitable access for all schools, public and nonpublic, including faith-based schools," said Steven Cheeseman, the president of the National Catholic Educational Association, "so that every student benefits from the resources necessary to ensure that they can attend school in a safe and secure environment."
