Religious, educational groups urge legislators to provide additional state funding for school safety

Years before the Annunciation shooting , religious and education groups called on Gov. Tim Walz to push for additional state funding to keep their students safe.

In April 2023, following the Covenant School shooting in Tennessee, the Minnesota Catholic Conference and Minndependent wrote a public letter asking the governor for help to include them in a proposed $50 million school safety program.

"Our schools are under attack," it read, asking the governor to "include all schools as eligible for funding, whether they are public, charters or nonpublic schools."

The state legislature never passed the bill despite a nearly $18 billion surplus.

Max Schachter founded Safe Schools for Alex, a database that provides parents with detailed information about the safety of K-12 schools acro