The recent student riot at JFK High School is another reminder to fully fund our education system and have an adequate number of school aides present at all schools. Year after year, GDOE receives over $100 million less than its request. Budget restraints have limited the number of personnel and resources jeopardizing the safety of our students.

GDOE employees do their best to protect our students with the limited number of personnel and resources available but there is only so much they can do to prevent and quickly respond to incidents at the schools. JFK has roughly 1700 students and only 14 school aides. Luckily there were no serious injuries, but we shouldn’t wait for a tragic incident to happen before taking any action. All our schools are short of personnel that is directly caused by underfunding education.

We urge our senators to fully fund education to ensure our students’ safety is a priority.