Michigan public schools will become the strongholds of our state against imminent terrorist attacks, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced Tuesday that schools can apply to receive federal funding toward improving emergency response systems to terrorist threats - whether chemical, biological, explosive or nuclear. The whopping amount of cash that would be available to individual schools for these defensive overhauls?

$2,200.

This estimate might be enough for schools to purchase a few gas masks to keep in the office secretary's desk. Better yet, the cash could cover publicity expenses for "Biohazard Spirit Week." Or maybe schools could just use the money to white out the large red bull's-eye target painted on their blacktop roofs.

The point is, $2,200 just isn't enough to turn Michigan schools into homeland fortresses. Of course, schools shouldn't be fortresses in the first place.

Instead of putting the grants toward terror-defense mechanisms, perhaps the money should be used to create programs that would teach Michigan's students and educators not to live in fear. Instead of boarding up their doors, schools could inspire their students to refrain from the racial profiling that often coexists with the threat of terrorism.

Terrorism in itself usually is associated with foreign menaces, but schools should remain concerned with more home-grown versions, the types that have plagued schools in the past decade. Bomb scares and school shootings, though not as frequent these days, continue to threaten school safety. Funding should go toward protecting students from these threats as well as from foreign-bred terrorism.

Still, regardless of how schools decide to use their defensive funds, the best $2,200 can provide is merely a crash-course in duck-and-cover.