School safety fund

On Friday, Senators Don Defronzo (New Britain) and Don Williams (Brooklyn) announced the creation of a $15million school safety fund.

As I've said before, school safety is important. But I also want to know how this money will be allocated. This article (Courant, by Loretta Waldman) gives a pretty good explanation about how the money will be allocated. I'm still curious about this one paragraph though:

The lawmakers estimated the cost of such (school safety) systems to be $10,000 to $200,000. The grants from the state would reimburse, most, if not all, of each school's costs on a sliding scale, they said.

What exactly do they mean by "sliding scale?"

Is it based on population of the town? How about population of the student body? Perhaps it's based on the crime rate in each town? Or the crime rate in each school? Will this "sliding scale" take into account crime prevention measures that already exist in certain schools?

My guess is that this "sliding scale" will be defined during the upcoming session. That would be appropriate. And ensuring school safety is important. But I also hope that the legislature provides the voters with a full explanation as to how this money will be allocated.

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District