New law allows retired police officers to work in Arizona schools
Gov. Katie Hobbs signed House Bill 2074 into law on May 6, expanding the School Safety Program that began in 2007. The School Safety Program is a state-funded grant that schools can apply for to create safer learning environments by increasing the number of officers, counselors and social workers on campus.
'Just as we have a shortage of teachers, we have the shortage of police officers,' Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said.
Previously, school police officers were required to be actively licensed. Now, retired peace officers previously employed in Arizona who left the workforce in good standing can work as school officers. Retired officers would still need to be assigned to the School Safety Program by a law enforcement agency, such as a local police department.
Horne said HB 2074 was the most significant school safety law since the School Safety Program's creation.
HB 2074 was sponsored by Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, and approved by the Legislature in April. The bill expands the authorized use of School Safety Program grants issued by the Arizona State Department of Education.
An estimated $33 million in grant funding went unused during the 2024-24 school year because schools couldn't find personnel to hire due to qualification requirements, Gress said.
Aside from adding more school resource officers, as school police officers are commonly called, HB 2074 allows School Safety Program grant money to be used for safety infrastructure, equipment and training. The bill also requires at least one officer at a school to receive training in interacting with students with disabilities.
The law also exempts schools from having to release school blueprints or floorplans in response to public records requests.
Schools receiving grant funding will also now be required to complete regular safety assessments and develop emergency response plans.
Coverage of education solutions on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is partially supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation's Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: New law allows retired police officers to work in Arizona schools
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San Francisco Chronicle
4 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Newsom faces a tight timeline to redistrict California. Here are the roadblocks
SACRAMENTO — To counter Texas redistricting, Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a tight timeline to convince lawmakers to act. But many won't even say where they stand on the issue. Newsom first raised the prospect of redrawing California's congressional maps in favor of Democrats three weeks ago as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott moved to do the same in his state in favor of Republicans. But while Abbott has been able to move forward with his redistricting efforts unfettered, Newsom faces more roadblocks. In most states, including in Texas, state lawmakers approve congressional maps, giving politicians power to shape districts in favor of their own political parties. But California voters took that power away from the state Legislature in 2010 and handed it to an independent redistricting commission. The secretary of state's office would need about three month's heads up to facilitate a special election, said spokesperson Jim Patrick. That means California lawmakers would need to act immediately when they return from their summer recess in mid-August to bring the issue before voters at the same time as municipal elections in November. Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, said he thinks that's an unlikely prospect. 'I never use the word impossible, but that's about as close as you can get to impossible,' said Cortese, who serves as the Senate majority whip. 'I think rushing like that would be imprudent. If we're going to do it at all, it needs to be well thought out, well planned, defensible in every way, and then we put it before the voters. That's what it would take to get my vote.' To go to voters, as Newsom has suggested, and ask them to at least partially undo the law they passed in 2010, the governor will need to convince at least 80 of the 120 state lawmakers. Democrats control 91 seats in the state Senate and Assembly combined. In theory, that gives Newsom a wide margin of support if he can get his party on board. But even lawmakers who represent the liberal Bay Area are mostly staying silent. The Chronicle reached out to the 27 lawmakers — all Democrats — who represent the area asking what they think of Newsom's plan. Just two said explicitly that they support putting a measure on the ballot to reclaim the power to draw congressional districts. Some others expressed general support for the idea of pushing back against Texas, but did not explicitly endorse a ballot measure. Sen. Chris Cabaldon, a Democrat representing parts of the Sacramento region and Bay Area wine country, said he supports Newsom's proposal. 'I think he's got it exactly right,' Cabaldon told the Chronicle. 'We have to recognize what's really at stake here and fight back.' He doesn't want to change the independent commission's power to draw state legislative districts, but said he supports the idea of a ballot measure that temporarily allows California lawmakers to draw new congressional maps. Assembly Member Catherine Stefani of San Francisco also endorsed the idea of a ballot measure. 'Trump and his allies have shown they'll do whatever it takes to undermine democracy — and if they're going to rig the game, we owe it to our voters to fight back,' she wrote in a statement. 'The fairest way to do that is to let the people of California decide at the ballot box.' Sen. Josh Becker of Menlo Park and Assembly Members Patrick Ahrens of Sunnyvale and Ash Kalra of San Jose agreed with Newsom that California should fight back. They also agreed that a ballot measure should be on the table, but stopped short of explicitly endorsing one. Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire and Assembly Member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, who represent parts of the North Bay, did not respond directly to questions about whether they support Newsom's specific proposals, but broadly endorsed the idea of fighting back against Republicans. Assembly Member Alex Lee of San Jose pushed back on Newsom's plan. 'Respectfully… why?' he wrote on social media in response to Newsom's proposal. He described California's independent redistricting commission as a 'model for the nation.' Cortese said he's willing to consider a ballot measure, given the stakes, but said he wouldn't support something that permanently revoked the independent commission's power to draw districts, something he considers one of the biggest improvements to the Legislature in the last 20 years. There's no way for California state lawmakers, who often run for Congress themselves and are close with many candidates who do, to draw district lines objectively, he said. 'When it comes to taking back the House, I don't think anyone in our caucus will say that's not an important goal,' Cortese said. 'The question is can we come up with a way to get there that doesn't throw our own Legislature into chaos?' Cortese said he would not consider another plan Newsom has floated — to simply have the Legislature draw new maps using the argument that while the California Constitution gives that power to the independent commission after each census, it doesn't explicitly prohibit lawmakers from drawing different maps mid-decade. The governor has acknowledged that's a strategy that might not hold up in court. The state budget deficit is also a concern. The last statewide special election in 2021 cost $200 million in public funds to administer. If the Legislature can't consolidate this special election with local elections already scheduled in November, that means it could be looking at a similar cost in the face of a massive budget deficit. And the timeline will still be tight. If the Legislature draws new maps, it must do so with enough time for candidates to file to run in the new districts. California's 2026 primary election is scheduled for June 2, and the deadline for people to declare their candidacy is March 6. Pro-redistricting pollsters are already interviewing voters about how they feel about the prospect of politicians redrawing the state's political boundaries less than 20 years after Californians overwhelmingly voted that a non-partisan commission should. It is not clear who is funding or performing the polling. Former Brea (Orange County) Mayor Glenn Parker was called by a pollster last week asking if he would support a proposition to eliminate California's redistricting commission and put the process back in the hands of the Legislature. As a longtime local elected official and registered Democrat who has never voted for Donald Trump, he said he was torn. The redistricting commission 'isn't necessarily perfect, but it's probably the closest thing we could get to an objective drawing of the districts,' said Parker, who applied to be on the commission but was not accepted. 'But you do have to fight fire with fire.' Stanford University political science professor Bruce Cain worked on California's 1980 redistricting plans when he was a Democratic staffer in the Assembly. He said he doubts voters would support a measure to undo the commission. Democrats are split between those who want to counter the Republican move in Texas and good government types who don't want to roll back a nationally lauded political reform, he said. Republicans would be uniformly against it, Cain said, because it would strip them of power. Independent voters are 'more likely to say, 'Hey, wait a minute. Under this (current) system, we have a voice. If we're going back to the Legislature (drawing the maps), we don't count for anything.' So I don't see the winning coalition there,' Cain said. The unknown factor is whether Newsom could convince Democrats and left-leaning independents that the move is necessary to counter Trump, of whom two-thirds of California voters disapprove. 'That is to be determined,' Cain said. 'This will be an uphill battle to convince voters. There'll be some backlash to this.' Newsom has insisted he's serious about his plans to counter redistricting in Texas, though he hasn't committed to spending a specific amount of money on a campaign, which would likely cost tens of millions of dollars. Some opposition might already be amassing. On Tuesday, Charles Munger Jr., the longtime Republican donor who funded the 2010 ballot measure that created a citizens panel to draw boundaries for congressional seats, posted on X that 'any attempt to undermine the nonpartisan California Redistricting Commission will be strongly opposed in the courts and at the ballot box.' Munger would have the funds to mount a credible opposition campaign. Munger's father, who died in 2023, was vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corp. and a longtime colleague of Warren Buffett.
Politico
5 hours ago
- Politico
Orange County in the crosshairs
Good morning and welcome to Thursday. Orange County is quickly becoming the epicenter of resistance against the Republican agenda in Tallahassee. The latest pushback it got from the state came Tuesday as Florida Attorney General JAMES UTHMEIER posted a letter to the county demanding officers help transport ICE detainees, warning otherwise the mayor and commissioners could be removed from office. Orange County had already agreed to house detainees arrested by ICE at its jail so they could await court dates or deportation. It also signed an agreement allowing officers to conduct immigration enforcement. But commissioners and Mayor JERRY DEMINGS decided not to sign the transportation agreement because they said their officers are already overwhelmed. A drive to the 'Alligator Alcatraz' facility in the Everglades, for instance, is 240 miles each way. And county data show the number of people held in jail because of an ICE request went from 98 in June of last year to 222 this June. Demings said he wanted the county to negotiate reimbursements to help pay for those housing costs. 'What they're doing is making our community unsafe, making our jail unsafe, because then they're pulling people out — resources that we cannot afford to send somewhere else within our state,' Demings told reporters Wednesday following a ribbon-cutting event. Demings also blasted Uthmeier for describing Orange County as a 'sanctuary city' and dismissed him as 'over-ambitious,' 'full of himself' and working for his 'political interests.' 'I spent more years on the streets of Florida, patrolling our streets as a law-enforcement officer than he's been alive, but he's attacking me,' said Demings, a former Orlando police chief. On Wednesday, Gov. RON DESANTIS said during a press conference in Tampa that the immigration law the GOP-supermajority Legislature passed this year was clear about how local governments have to do as much as they can to help with immigration enforcement. He added that he would be watching the case and if necessary would look at his constitutional authority and see whether elected officials were upholding the law. 'I think that I've shown that I'm willing to do that,' he said with regard to removal of elected officials, referring to how he previously suspended liberal prosecutors. Area state lawmakers came to the county's defense. State Sen. CARLOS GUILLERMO SMITH (D-Orlando) said the removal of local elected officials 'would constitute a hostile right-wing takeover of local government with no historical precedent.' Rep. BRUCE ANTONE (D-Orlando) said he supported deportation of violent criminals but not having local officials 'be engaged in just helping to round up any and everybody.' 'That takes away from what they have to do every day,' he said. 'It concerns me when my constituents are calling me and they're being randomly stopped and asked about their citizenship status. That's creating a whole other layer of fear in the community.' 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One of the candidates, Orange County Clerk of Courts TIFFANY MOORE RUSSELL, said elected officials 'made their decision based on how to best manage county resources and the constituents who elected them.' Former Rep. STEPHANIE MURPHY said public safety should be a county's first priority but that the transport requirement was an 'unfunded mandate that risks diverting already strained public safety resources and undermining due process for residents of Orange County.' She added that she supported the commission working with the state and federal government to find a 'responsible path forward.' — Andrew Atterbury contributed to this report. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget that Playbook should look at? Get in touch at: kleonard@ and @leonardkl. 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Republicans already hold a 20-8 edge over Democrats. — Gary Fineout 'ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ' GETS ANOTHER COURT HEARING — A federal judge Wednesday appeared to lean toward keeping an environmental challenge against the 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigration detention facility in the Southern District of Florida after a state challenge arguing it should be moved elsewhere. The district judge, Kathleen Williams, didn't immediately make a decision or say when one would come. The environmental groups say the state waited too long to contest the venue and pointed out the issue was raised only after Williams, who recently cited Uthmeier with contempt of court, took over the case. But Jesse Panuccio, representing Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, said Wednesday that the 'judge shopping' argument was unfair and repeatedly pointed out that the property is in Collier County, which is outside the southern district. 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CARLOS GIMÉNEZ — formerly mayor of Miami-Dade County — was considering running for mayor of the City of Miami. The election's date is being challenged in the courts, but as of now it's set for this November, and candidates have as late as Sept. 20 to enter the race. Gimenez clapped back on X, saying that Loomer didn't know what she was talking about. He also blasted her for pushing to keep Chevron operating in Venezuela. 'I stand with the Venezuelan people in their fight for freedom,' he said. TRUMPLANDIA AND THE SWAMP SANCTIONS ON JUDGE — The Treasury Department has sanctioned a Brazilian judge overseeing the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of organizing a coup — the latest Trump administration foray into the trial of one of President Donald Trump's ideological allies. 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Bloomberg
5 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Ukraine Lawmakers Restore Anti-Graft Agencies' Independence
By Updated on Save Ukraine's parliament approved a bill to restore the independence of key anti-corruption agencies, responding to mounting pressure from protests and Kyiv's foreign backers on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Lawmakers voted 331 in favor of the bill in the 450-seat legislature in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday. It must now be signed by the speaker of parliament and president before it can take effect.
