Here & Now

Josh Kaul on Potential Cuts to the Office of School Safety

Zac Schultz:

Another big ticket item taken up by the Finance Committee recently was the budget for the state’s Department of Justice. Similar to the rest of the state budgeting process, committee Republicans passed a fraction of what Democrats proposed for an increase and the department’s Office of School Safety created in 2018 did not see a renewal of funds effectively eliminating it. We’re joined now by state Attorney General Josh Kaul for more. Thanks for your time today.

Josh Kaul:

Thanks for having me.

Zac Schultz:

So what were the reasons you were given for these cuts?

Josh Kaul:

There weren’t any specific reasons. Our Office of School Safety has been really a huge success story over the last several years. They’ve developed both innovative and effective programs that schools around Wisconsin have relied on to help keep kids safe. We’ve relied on some federal grant funding to launch those programs. That’s actually one of the things that we and DPI were directed to do in the statute creating that office, and the legislature, unfortunately, at least so far, has decided not to continue providing — to provide additional funding that we need to keep the operations of that office going and what that would mean for schools is that they would loses some critical programs, like our 24/7 confidential tip line that has helped keep schools in Wisconsin safe.

Zac Schultz:

I know some of the work that the office did was how to do planning and scenarios for law enforcement and schools, especially active shooter scenarios, which are happening more and more. What will schools do in lieu of that? Do you think they have relationships now with local police departments that can substitute for what the office provided?

Josh Kaul:

There’s been some real progress made over the last five years, but there’s nothing that can substitute for having this office in space. I’ll give you one simple example. One of the programs launched by our Office of School Safety is this tip line I mentioned. Anybody associated with a school can provide a tip at any time, get a trained analyst to respond to that tip and then get resources deployed. We’ve now received thousands of contacts through that line and it includes things like reports about a student who had a gun on a bus. We got that information to locals and then that gun was recovered and an arrest was made. In another case, there was a student overheard talking about meeting up with a stranger on the internet. We got resources to that student working with local partners. That student didn’t ultimately meet up with a stranger. And in another case, there was discussion about a potential planned school attack where there was a response that happened and there was a check done to make sure the school was kept safe. That kind of information prevents violence from happening in our schools and there’s nothing that’s in place that would replace that.

Zac Schultz:

Do you have any ability to reallocate staff within your remaining department to try and help fill some of that gap?

Josh Kaul:

We’re going to explore what opportunities are available, but the clearest and best way to continue funding that office is to have a long-term investment through state resources. It’s something that the state absolutely can afford. We have a historic budget surplus and the amount that we have requested for that office is about $2.2 million over a two-year period. Our kids deserve that kind of investment in their safety.

Zac Schultz:

And now another area of the budget that didn’t get the bump you were hoping for is the state Crime Lab. What will that mean for prosecutors at the local level?

Josh Kaul:

You know, it was disappointing to see there wasn’t more of an investment there. There was some which we certainly appreciate but far less than we requested. Eric Toney who’s the president of the DAs Association and who ran against me, joined us to advocate for resources for the labs, but again, at a time when we have historic budget surplus, the legislature provided just a fraction of what we had asked for and the more analysts that we have, the more efficiently we can process evidence, the more effectively our justice system works. It’s disappointing there wasn’t more investment there. But really our focus right now, in light of what we’ve seen, is on the Office of School Safety because that office will be dismantled without a renewed effort to include funding in the legislature.

Zac Schultz:

And what have you heard since they declined to fund it in the first place? Is there any chance they come around on this? Is there something the governor can do?

Josh Kaul:

We’re going to keep working. I’ve begun reaching out to legislators. I’m going to keep doing that. I know that there’s bipartisan support for this office, but where things end up is going to depend on what decisions legislators make and we are reaching out to partners. We’re communicating about this because, at the end of the day, if we lose this office, that’s going to impact schools across the state of Wisconsin and leave our kids less safe. I certainly don’t want to see that. I’m hopeful that legislators will agree that that’s not what they want to have happen.

Zac Schultz:

In past budget cycles or past political cycles, you’ve had issues with some of the bills coming out of the legislature that seemed politically maneuvered. Do you sense politics here because you’re a Democrat running this office, or is this simply funding or they don’t see the need for this office?

Josh Kaul:

Well, the statements we’ve heard were pretty general. There was a party line vote in the Joint Finance Committee. It’s Republicans who voted to block this funding, but I am hopeful there will be bipartisan support here. The office was created in 2018 with bipartisan support. It was signed into law by Governor Walker. School safety is something we should all be able to agree is a worthwhile investment for our kids, and so I hope we will see that.

Zac Schultz:

In terms of where you go from here, are you hoping that locals will actually speak up, that schools will speak up? In 30 seconds or less, what can we hope to see outside of just you and the political process?

Josh Kaul:

That’s what we’ve started to see so far. We’ve worked with people who were partners of ours in the School Safety Office’s work. We’ve heard from SROs already, from others in law enforcement, from schools about the importance of this program. I think we’re going to continue seeing that and we’re going to keep reaching out to encourage people to talk about why this program is so valuable.

Zac Schultz:

All right. Attorney General Josh Kaul, thanks for your time.

Josh Kaul:

Thanks for having me.