Jesse Scheckner
Jewish day schools in Florida will get some extra protection in the coming fiscal year through last-minute allocations in the coming budget.
In “sprinkle lists” the Senate and House released hours before a final vote was expected on the state’s 2025-26 spending plan, the two chambers submitted earmarks for Jewish school security totaling $10 million.
The Senate set aside $7.5 million. The House allotted $2.5 million.
Combined, the sum is $1 million more than Gov. Ron DeSantis recommended Feb. 3 in his “Focus on Fiscal Responsibility” proposal to hire school safety officers, upgrade equipment, improve transportation provisions and enhance school hardening and safety measures.
The Governor’s Office noted then that the schools and preschools may also be eligible for Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds if they meet U.S. Department of Homeland Security criteria.
The sprinkle list, as its name suggests, is an assortment of supplemental funding initiatives the Legislature compiles as budgeting processes near closure. Sprinkle items typically small apportionments (compared to other earmarks) to regional projects.
Some, like the Jewish day school items, are for statewide projects.
Notably, the combined funding allotted Friday is half of what the Senate proposed for security guards, transportation grants and capital outlay funding for Jewish day school security through a pair of line items on which it didn’t reach accord with the House.
But it’s equal to what the House offered: $7 million for security and transportation and $3 million for fixed capital outlay.
Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. have skyrocketed since Hamas terrorists entered Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, more than 50 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In the time since, Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 55,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry, whose count doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians. The fighting has displaced 90% of the territory’s roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape.
Within a year of the attack, the U.S. saw more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents, including over 3,000 during anti-Israel rallies, 2,000 at Jewish institutions and at least 1,200 on college campuses, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Hostilities in recent months have given rise to several deadly attacks on U.S. soil, including an arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence in April, the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., in May, and a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, that injured at last 16 people.
As he had done in years prior, DeSantis signed bills in 2024 to address the issue, including measures to codify a definition of antisemitism in Florida Statutes and allow recurring state funding for private Jewish school security.
Localities have done their part as well. Following the Washington attack, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz announced she was ramping up patrols around Jewish schools, cultural institutions and places of worship.
