Shreveport Spends How Much on Crossing Guards?
A lot of stuff was discussed yesterday during the Shreveport City Council's work session: Everything from City insurance to restricting the Mayor's powers. It was a heavy duty session. But in the midst of all that craziness, the Council brought up something that just blew me away: the cost of crossing guards for Shreveport schools.
Council President Jerry Bowman is backing a measure to reduce how much the city spends on crossing guards. The city is budgeted to pay off duty Shreveport Police officers nearly $261,000 to act as crossing guards at schools across the city. The Caddo School Board only kicks in about $11,000 to help out.
The Ordinance wants to reduce the city's financial burden by reducing how much they kick in by $75,000 and to ask the Caddo School Board to pony up more money for the service. Now, obviously, the idea has a lot of opposition. Nobody wants to make things unsafe for kids. I get that. But on the other hand, why is the city shouldering more or less the full burden?
I'll readily admit I don't know every detail of this...but the City paying 261 thousand bucks compared to just 11 from the school board seems insane.
The ordinance is being tabled until Council Members can meet with school leaders.