🛝 $4 Billion on School Safety. $2 Billion in New Grants. How to Know If Any of It Works?

Welcome to Playground Post, a bi-weekly newsletter that keeps education innovators ahead of what's next.

This week's reality check: Schools spend $4 billion a year on safety hardware that research says doesn't work. The largest phone ban study ever found zero academic gains across 4,600 schools. And the federal government proposed a $2 billion education grant while acknowledging it "would not establish goals and performance indicators." The pattern: massive spending, zero measurement.

Data Gem

An EdChoice/Morning Consult survey of more than 1,000 K-12 teachers found that 58% rank communication with students and 52% rank behavior observation as their most important success measures. Only 17% cite standardized test scores.

Schools Spend $4 Billion a Year on Safety. Research Says It Doesn't Work

Schools in the United States spend more than $4 billion annually on safety measures. 

Metal detectors. Surveillance cameras. AI-powered weapons detection systems.

The evidence that any of it prevents violence is described by the Learning Policy Institute as "thin."

In one incident LPI documented, a Maryland high school student was confronted at gunpoint and handcuffed by police after a weapons detection system misidentified a bag of chips.

AI monitoring of student accounts and license plate readers have been found to erode the trust between students and staff, the very foundation that research says actually prevents violence.

"Every dollar spent on school safety is ultimately a choice about what kind of environment schools create for young people," LPI wrote. "Districts can invest in technologies that monitor and sometimes criminalize students, but these measures often come with significant psychological costs for the school community."

What does the evidence support instead? 

Trusting relationships. Positive school climates. Mental health supports.

Georgia's Senate considered a bill this session that would have required weapons detection systems in every public school statewide.

It was tabled.

School shootings reached an all-time high in 2023. The urgency is real, but the $4 billion question is whether districts are spending on what makes them feel safe or what the research says actually keeps students safe.

For education innovators, this is a $4 billion market being spent in the wrong direction. School climate diagnostic platforms, evidence-based threat assessment tools, peer reporting systems with human verification, and mental health support infrastructure address the factors research says actually prevent violence. 

Procurement advisory services that help districts evaluate safety spending against evidence, rather than vendor marketing, fill the gap between what schools are buying and what the data says works.

Phone Ban Study: 4,600 Schools, No Academic Gains

The results are in from the largest study ever conducted on school cell phone bans. 

Researchers from Stanford, Duke, the University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania analyzed data from about 4,600 schools using Yondr lock pouches.

Phone bans work at what they're designed to do. 

The share of students using phones in class for personal reasons fell from 61% to 13%. GPS data showed a roughly 30% drop in device pings during school hours by year three.

But academic achievement gains were "consistently close to zero."

Across three years, the study found no measurable improvement in test scores. No improvement in attendance. No improvement in self-reported attention. No reduction in perceived bullying.

"I think it's reasonable to view these results as sobering," said Thomas Dee, the Stanford economist who co-led the study. "Not seeing better results at this early stage is somewhat disappointing."

There were complications - suspensions spiked 16% in the first full year before fading back to baseline. Student well-being dropped in year one, then rebounded above pre-ban levels by year three.

At least 37 states and Washington, D.C. now require or encourage school phone restrictions. Teachers and parents overwhelmingly support the bans, while students generally oppose them.

Experts cautioned against giving up too early. 

Newer cohorts of schools are showing some test score gains. They argue that reducing phone use is a "critical antecedent" to academic improvement, even if scores haven't moved yet.

"We need to not succumb to the usual faddishness that permeates education reform," Dee said, "and persist with a robust learning agenda."

For education innovators, the study reframes the phone ban market. The hardware works (phones do get locked up) but the outcomes haven't followed  that creates demand for what comes AFTER the ban: classroom engagement tools that fill the attention vacuum, behavior transition support for the difficult first year, and measurement platforms that help districts track whether removing phones actually changes learning.

$2 Billion Education Grant. But It Won't Measure Results

The Department of Education's FY2027 budget includes a new $2 billion "Make Education Great Again" grant.

The pitch: consolidate programs, prioritize reading and math, send more decision-making to states.

One line in the department's own budget justification should stop every education innovator in their tracks.

It says the department "would not establish goals and performance indicators" for the program.

MEGA would consolidate 17 federal education programs into a single state formula grant, with at least 25% reserved for literacy and 25% for mathematics. 

The programs being absorbed include teacher development, after-school programs, state assessments, support for homeless students, rural education, school safety, magnet schools, civics, arts education, and family engagement.

Once those line items disappear into a single grant, there is no way to see what states funded, what they skipped, and what any of it produced.

The contradiction: same budget proposes cutting federal education statistics from $121.5 million to $42.2 million and reducing NAEP funding from $193.3 million to $137.3 million.

More money going out. Less capacity to measure where it goes.

The total federal investment in education measurement, before any cuts, is $694.8 million.

That's 85 cents for every $1,000 schools spend. 

That sliver buys NAEP, state assessments, and the data infrastructure that makes achievement gaps, recovery progress, and spending patterns visible.

Congress rejected similar cuts last year. MEGA is still a proposal, not law. But it reveals a structural assumption: that accountability is dispensable.

For education innovators, the measurement vacuum is the market. Independent state-level outcomes dashboards, third-party grant accountability platforms, and "show your work" reporting tools fill a gap the federal government is choosing to leave open. If $2 billion flows to states with no performance indicators, someone has to build the scoreboard.

⚡️More Quick Hits

This week in education:

• Senate advances ban on AI companions for minors with $100,000 penalties per offense — The GUARD Act passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously after a Common Sense Media survey found 1 in 3 teens use AI companion apps for emotional support, conversation practice, or role-playing, with exemptions for educational AI tools still undefined

• Washington district used "vibe coding" to build custom apps with AI, saving $250,000 in vendor costs — Non-technical staff used low-code AI tools to replace expensive third-party software for attendance tracking and hall passes, part of a growing trend of districts building their own tools instead of buying SaaS

• Kids' executive function skills took a lasting hit during COVID, Harvard study of 3,100 children finds — Working memory, self-regulation, and planning grew more slowly during the pandemic, with one study estimating an 11-12 month loss of expected growth, and post-pandemic recovery running at only 65-74% of prior rates

• Civil rights office resolved just 1% of its cases in 2025, with 2,000+ still pending — OCR reached only 112 resolution agreements while losing half its staff and closing seven of 12 regional offices, with zero resolutions in sexual harassment, sexual violence, or racial harassment categories

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