On a day where our General Assembly still has made no progress toward a new budget that amply funds public schools, where a state supreme court overturned the dictates of the LEANDRO court decision, and a looming deficit in our local school system, it is easy to feel some anger on this day toward our elected officials.

Yes, we need more wrap-around services in our schools. We need more nurses, counselors, and social workers. We need to do something about overcrowded schools and these large class sizes. We need to address having more people in our schools to work with students. We need to talk about guns and mental health.

But we need to really start looking at all schools as “our” schools. That means actively looking at every school we support with our constitutional obligation as a state as the very school that teaches “our” children.

What happened near Mt. Tabor High School today and Thomas Jefferson Middle School on Monday are not isolated events. If the years since Columbine has shown our country anything, it is that no school is immune from acts of violence and tragedy.

I do not know many people who would not try and move heaven and earth if it meant the well-being and safety of their own children.

The students at Mt. Tabor and TJMS are “our” kids. The educators at those schools teach “our” kids. The public servants who went to these campuses were there for “our” kids.

Loving “our” kids means more than just thoughts and prayers.

Loving “our” kids requires taking action and making investments in schools that do not always start out with a bottom line financially.