Every public school in the city has school safety agents, but you cannot say the same thing about the many private or religious schools that teach tens of thousands of children. So now, city taxpayers are going to pick up the tab to put security guards in these institutions. The move was applauded in religious communities, but slammed by some civil libertarians, as NY1's Courtney Gross reports.

They're fixtures at any public school, but if you are paying for education at one of the city's many religious or private schools, security guards may not be included.

"I think it would be safe for us to have security guards here," said one student.

"Our school you can leave very easily and people get in very easily," said another. "There is not much security. So it's very easily a stranger could just walk in."

The City Council is changing that. It overwhelmingly passed legislation on Monday to provide up to $19.8 million annually to nearly 300 private schools to pay for unarmed security guards.

"And we're proud to lead on this landmark safety measure," said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito

"I think it's a smart piece of legislation," the mayor said.

The proposal is controversial and years in the making — with strong backing from both the city's Jewish and Catholic communities.

But it was blasted by some who say it's not a good use of taxpayer resources.

"This measure will come at great cost to our public schools," said Queens City Councilman Danny Dromm.

And others who say it violates the principle that church and state are separate. 

"It feels very much like pandering to the religious lobby," said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman.

"I don't think the mayor or anyone else is playing politics with anyone's safety," said Brooklyn City Councilman David Greenfield. "I think this is based on the merits."

Supporters point to shootings from Newtown to Paris, saying every child, whether they attend a public or private school, catholic or yeshiva, they all deserve to be protected.

"We are a very huge school and our parents are extremely concerned about what's going on in the world," said Debbie Klugmann of Beth Jacob of Boro Park. "We feel all schools deserve it and all schools should have it."

Now the number of security guards each school gets will depend on the number of students it has. This is set to take effect in April.