Should schools be required to have armed cops on campus? California lawmaker revives debate
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
AFTER NORCAL SHOOTING, LAWMAKER REVIVES DEBATE OVER ARMED COPS IN SCHOOLS
After the shooting of two kindergarten students at Feather River Adventist School in Oroville last week, Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Corona, used the occasion to resurrect his legislation requiring all California schools to have an armed police officer present during school hours.
His bill, AB 68, reopens the fierce debate over the role of armed police in schools.
Essayli, in reintroducing the legislation, said in a statement, “Yesterday, two innocent children were shot in cold blood at school. This is not a time for empty rhetoric, it is a time for action.”
“As elected officials we have a sacred duty to protect our most vulnerable citizens from harm, this includes our children at school,” he added.
The legislation has the seal of approval of at least one California law enforcement officer: Riverside County Sheriff (and rumored 2026 gubernatorial contender) Chad Bianco.
“We need armed officers at our schools,” Bianco said in a statement, calling the Oroville shooting a “perfect example of the tragic consequence of not having an officer immediately available to intervene.”
Armed police aren’t necessarily a guarantee for student safety.
During the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the shooter killed 19 children and two teachers, and wounded 18 others, while police waited to act, prompting a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that slammed the response for “cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training,” according to the Texas Tribune.
And in 2023, the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute released a report — “School Resource Officers: Is Police Presence in Schools Doing More Harm than Good?” — citing studies that found mixed results for School Resource Officers, or SROs. At least one study said that they did not improve school safety.
“Given the paucity of good research and the mixed findings of what does exist, expanding SROs is something all levels of government ... should be hesitant to do,” the report concluded.
AB 68 will likely face stiff resistance in the Legislature, where both houses are controlled by a Democratic supermajority. Essayli’s previous bill on the subject, AB 3038, died in the Assembly Education Committee last spring on a party-line vote.
MCCLINTOCK’S ‘MODEST PROPOSAL’ TO DOGE
Via David Lightman...
Rep. Tom McClintock offered advice for the new Department of Government Efficiency last week: Take a hard look at federal grants.
“So here’s a modest proposal for the DOGE boys: stop the cash bonanza to every self-described deserving cause and influential community with a good grant writer,” the Roseville Republican said in a House floor speech.
McClintock, a longtime critic of what he calls excessive federal spending, noted that government grants fall into two categories: “Gifts of public money for every cause under the sun and grants for local projects of every variety.”
“They are all for good causes,” he said, but added, “Unfortunately, by their very nature, they are plagued with lax oversight, political favoritism, little followup, and questionable benefits.
“Indeed, much of the grant money doled out each year disappears into the salaries of various groups and agencies that will then write glowing reports of their work and apply for more grants next year in an ever-expanding litany of waste,” McClintock said..
“There is never a shortage of highly paid grant application writers eager to make that case.”
Businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are heading the new agency that’s looking for ways to cut federal spending and promote efficiency. The department has no formal authority over policy, though.
But maybe they can apply pressure. McClintock said, “Budget writers and appropriators should look with extreme skepticism on every grant that awards money without results or that robs taxpayers in one community to pay for projects in another.”
ELON MUSK TWEETS CALIFORNIA FAMILY COUNCIL PRESIDENT SCOTUS SPEECH
California Family Council President Jonathan Keller has a fan in Musk.
The South African billionaire used the social media platform he bought and re-named X to promote a live stream speech Keller gave in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, on the day it was hearing arguments in the case of United States v. Skrmetti. The case raises the question of whether states have the authority to ban transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming medical care.
Keller was speaking out in favor of the Tennessee law banning such care.
In an email to supporters, Keller wrote that he was shocked when a friend texted him to tell him he had appeared on Musk’s X feed.
“I certainly never expected the live stream would catch Elon Musk’s attention!” Keller said in the email.
Musk, whose transgender daughter has disowned him, has become an outspoken proponent of the anti-transgender movement, lining him up with the CFC, which long has lobbied against LGBTQ rights, including same-sex marriage and transgender peoples’ access to bathrooms matching their gender identity.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist movements of all kinds across the country, has designated the Fresno-based CFC as an anti-LGBTQ hate group. Keller has called that designation “clear slander.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“A shoutout to the CHP Capitol Protection Division’s Hazardous Service Detail K-9 unit, visible about the #CALeg campus today. Still outside the Swing Space having an incredibly productive #CABudget morning here!”
- Jason Sisney, budget advisor to the Assembly Speaker’s Office, via Bluesky.
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