And not even a full room at that... In the next county over they've got a high school with two students, taking coursework online. In my district we've got three buildings serving less than 500 students, plus the Developmental Achievement Center and students visiting the library a couple blocks away. Yup. five buildings to secure from dawn to the last event ends 14 hours or more later. Thats at least 60 hours a week we'd need armed guards at each facility, which after you figure in training time and holidays and vacations comes to at least two full time equivalent (FTE) positions for each facility. Where we gonna get the money for that? Heck, Minnesota still owes our schools a billion or so in state aid!
It gets worse... Our district's turf includes parts of four counties, and each county has a bunch of little towns with declining populations. Thus civic pride makes it impossible to consolidate schools much further. And practical problems like the cost and study time lost on hour long school bus rides make much further school consolidation unlikely- If anything we may see more online schools proliferate. So the county next to me with less than 1000 students split between over a dozen sites under the NRA's armed guard scheme will need a couple dozen guards just to cover onsite events, plus more armed guards to cover field trips and athletic events away from school sites. In a county with a mean age of 45 and unemployment under 5%, recruiting a couple dozen folks that can pass a background check and make it through Minnesota's required two years of Peace Officer training is a tall order. That's just the beginning- Police and security workers typically have a 20 years and out pension plan! So let's add it up- we need to recruit a couple dozen workers who can make it through tough background and physical screens in a county with maybe 75 unemployed workers, then get them through two years of training at the nearest college offering the required training over a hundred miles away. Fat chance!
Rural america is the NRA's target demographic... And the NRA is taking aim at rural america!
