They’re Playing Our Song

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The Register has it that Nussle proposed a policy that would require Iowa schools to have safety preparedness programs in addition to weather- and fire-related programs already in place. His plans include a half a million dollar grant that would assist the schools in implementing the programs. The money would come from a projected budget surplus. I wonder if he means the current surplus we have, because we all know that Nussle and the Republicans are really good at spending money their Democrat predecessors have saved up.

You can practically hear the music gearing up for the Culver campaign’s response: Nussle is doing the hustle. (I can’t help saying it–it rhymes!) They point out that Nussle has actually reduced spending on already established school safety programs in Iowa and around the country.

Today, Congressman Jim Nussle put out a “school safety” plan in which he actually took credit for REDUCED funding for the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, which provides direct money to Iowa for programs like drug task forces and child and teen drug prevention programs.

Obviously there is a bit of spin going on from both camps here, but I think what is actually important about this is that Nussle wants to create a program that will respond to school violence after it has happened. We’ve got fire-drills and tornado-drills, why not school shooting-drills? It might be useful to address underlying problems that cause students to act violently instead of creating a reaction program that institutionalizes the assumption that kids will always be bringing guns to school to kill each other.

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Entry Filed under: Miscellaneous, Campaign 2006, Gubernatorial

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