Miami Archdiocese urges Florida lawmakers to fund security for Catholic schools
Miami Catholic leaders are calling on Florida lawmakers to help pay for security at private Catholic schools, citing concerns about a rise in targeted Catholic violence and arguing that private schools should not be excluded from the state’s school safety budget.
Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing to spend $300 million for student safety measures in next year’s budget, a $10 million increase from last year, but the funding can only be used for public schools. Jim Rigg, superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Miami, argues it is unfair for some schools to receive state funds for security and not others.
“A child’s life is beyond price in any type of school be that a public school or a private school. I would hope that our state lawmakers would understand the value of a child’s life and be willing to support this,” said Rigg, who oversees the Archdiocese’ 65 schools and 3 preschools.
Florida wrapped a regular Legislative session without passing a budget so they will convene a special session on May 12-19 to finalize the budget.
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops argues that Catholic schools, which fund their security mainly through paid tuition, should receive help from the state government to offset their costs, much like Jewish day schools, which have received state funding from a grant program for several years.
“They need it too, but we also need it. We are seeing acts of violence against Catholic people in the United States, and we believe wholeheartedly that our students need to be safe,” Rigg said.
During regular session in March, the House proposed to spend $27.5 million of Florida’s budget on Catholic school security. The Senate proposal does not include that funding, which is why the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops is advocating ahead of the final budget vote later this month.
Rigg said Catholic schools would “be satisfied” with $27.5 million, even though it would not bring them up to “an equitable amount with the public schools.”
“But something is better than nothing, and we would be grateful to receive that amount,” he said.
More than 94,000 students are enrolled in Catholic schools across the state of Florida, with more than 37,000 students in South Florida, according to data from the Archdiocese of Miami. Though many of the schools fund their own security measures and police officers, Rigg said it would be ideal to re-route security costs on things like instruction, teacher salary and upgrades to facilities.
The cost to hire one police officer to patrol a school on a part-time basis would be $150,000 per year, an amount that is well above teacher and principal salaries, Rigg said.
“It’s expensive, and we’ve done it because we believe in the safety of our students, but we don’t think it is fair or just that other types of schools in the state receive funding, and we do not,” Rigg said.
Catholic leaders began advocating for the security grants after last year’s mass shooting at a Catholic Church in Minneapolis, which killed two children and injured 28 others.
Locally, there was a vandalism incident a few years ago at St. Timothy’s Catholic Church that alarmed the local community, though no dangerous incidents have been reported at local Catholic schools as of lately, said Rigg.
This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and donors in South Florida’s Jewish and Muslim communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza and the Mohsin and Fauzia Jaffer Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
