Dept of Education's top legislative priority is school safety

(The Center Square) - The Arizona Department of Education’s top priority for the upcoming legislative session is school safety, according to state schools Superintendent Tom Horne. The session begins Monday. The department is requesting legislators approve a $100 million increase in its budget to deploy more police officers in public schools, Horne told The Center Square. He said he has placed emphasis on assigning police officers to schools as school resource officers since becoming superintendent in 2023. Over the last three years, the number of SROs in Arizona public schools has increased from 190 to 565, representing a 197% increase. Even with this increase in SROs, Arizona public schools are expecting additional demand next year, Horne noted. To cite the importance of SROs in schools, Horne highlighted an instance at Legacy Traditional School in Tucson, where an SRO found Daniel Hollander on the school campus with a gun and a knife. When the SRO found him, he was talking to himsel