Uvalde native and renowned actor Matthew McConaughey is continuing a push to strengthen school safety and security after last year’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School rocked his community and the country.
Through a new program introduced last week, the Greenlights Grant Initiative is set to help school districts identify, apply and receive federal grants that were approved last summer to enhance school resources.
So far, the grants’ roll out under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act has been cumbersome, with many school districts and administrators simply unaware or unable to access federal money allocated to boost communities’ access to mental health services, crisis intervention and community learning center programs, and school safety technology.
“That’s money to pay for mental health resources and security for safer schools to ensure that our kids can learn in peace without fear,” McConaughey said in a July 20 video announcing the initiative. “Problem is, not enough school districts that need these grants know how to apply for them. And for those that do, it is a complex and expensive process.”
McConaughey, with his classic delivery and style, said the initiative is meant to help every school district in the country identify, apply and put to use the more than $2 billion set aside by lawmakers last June.
McConaughey said the initiative’s work — acting as a service to track grants, connect schools to professional grant writers and lending assistance to schools submitting their own applications — will be free to school districts with an emphasis on connecting districts without sufficient means to professional grant writers free of charge.
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To successfully apply for a federal grant can take anywhere from 50 to 100 hours, and hiring a professional grant writer can cost between $15,000 and $50,000, the initiative states on its website.
“And because applying for these federal grants is complex, intimidating and unrealistic for so many school districts, we want to make it easy,” McConaughey said.
The omnibus school safety package that Congress passed in the aftermath of the deadliest school shooting in Texas, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary, also included aspects of gun safety reform, but not to the extent McConaughey and his wife, Camila, sought after visits to Uvalde last summer.
Provisions requiring more extensive background checks for those 18 to 21 preceding a firearm purchase, new criminal offenses for straw purchasing and trafficking in firearms and firearm-related restrictions for individuals convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors against dating partners were part of the bipartisan deal in Congress.
McConaughey, during a press conference in the White House briefing room in June 2022, called for universal background checks, raising the minimum age to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21, and requiring a mandatory waiting period to purchase assault weapons.
One of 14 House Republicans to vote in support of the legislation, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, who represents Uvalde, has been vocal about wanting to quickly shepherd federal money to schools across the country.
“Anytime you include government into the equation, you have an unlimited amount of roadblocks, but step one is getting the schools to just submit the application,” Gonzales said during a joint interview with McConaughey on Fox News.
In April, the Texas Republican Party censured Gonzales, due in part to his support of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
For McConaughey, the potential for schools to see additional funding as a result of the bipartisan bill is proof of government and the political process working successfully.
“You know, I like to say this is not this red or blue money, it’s green money,” McConaughey said during the interview last week. “This is not a red or blue issue; It’s a red, white and blue issue.”
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