In recent years, public school board members and parents across the Valley have turned up the volume on hot-button cultural issues in the classroom like critical race theory, transgender bathrooms and mask mandates.
More quietly, districts, parents and GOP education leaders questioned the necessity of social workers on campus as well as using Arizona School Safety Grant to add more social workers in public school campuses instead of reserving that grant money exclusively for adding school resource officers.
In February, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said he would reprioritize the $80 million grant program from mainly providing funding to pay for school counselors to focus on the addition of SROs. Media reports estimated it would provide funding for 301 new SROs at Arizona campuses.
