Brendan J. Lyons is reporting for Capitol Confidential the New York State Sheriffs’ Association has requested the state Legislature fund at least one armed school resource officer at every elementary and high school in New York. “This will be an expensive undertaking,” said Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts, association president, “but we owe it to our children, and their parents, to provide a safe place for education to take place.” The sheriffs estimate the cost of the proposal would be roughly equal to the cost of adding one teacher to each of the nearly 7,000 public and privates schools located statewide. Based on the state's average teacher salary of $65,000 per year, last year, the association's proposal would cost taxpayers approximately $455 million, nearly one-third of the state's total education budget for the 2016-17 school year. In recent years, the number of SROs has decreased due to a lack of local funding. Some schools currently have SROs in place that are funded by the school district, the county government, or both. Read the full story at Capitol Confidential, a Times Union blog.