DeVos Weighs Federal Funding for Arming Teachers

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is considering a plan to use federal funding to put guns in schools, The New York Times reported Thursday, calling it an “unprecedented” move.

In March, following multiple school shootings, Congress passed a $50 million school safety bill for districts around the country that, as the Times notes, “expressly prohibited the use of the money for firearms.”

Public opinion started to turn more positive toward gun control, especially after the shootings in February at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 students died. A February Politico/Morning Consult poll showed “support for stricter gun laws among registered voters [is] at 68 percent, compared with just 25 percent who oppose stricter gun laws.”

While support for gun control tends to rise after school shootings, Parkland students have made a point of keeping their names and stories in the news, touring the country and attempting to persuade youths to register to vote so that they can elect politicians who support gun control. According to a recent Elle magazine story, Parkland students are even using a high tech T-shirt to aid their registration drive.

As back-to-school season begins, however, DeVos’ Department of Education seems determined to buck the trend. According the Times, the department is examining the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grant program, which, unlike the congressional school safety funding, does not prohibit spending on weapons.

“That omission,” the Times reports, “would allow [DeVos] to use her discretion to approve any state or district plans to use grant funding for firearms and firearm training, unless Congress clarifies the law or bans such funding through legislative action.”

Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill told the Times that “[t]he department is constantly considering and evaluating policy issues, particularly issues related to school safety.” She declined to elaborate.

As the Times explains, Student Support and Academic Enrichment is a $1 billion grant program intended to help the nation’s poorest school districts accomplish three goals: “providing a well-rounded education, improving school conditions for learning and improving the use of technology for digital literacy.”

The Education Department is exploring the position that guns could fit the criteria for improving school conditions, although current guidelines for meeting that criteria include expanding access to mental health services, support for students returning to school from juvenile detention, and other social services.

The Times observes that, like calls from President Trump to arm teachers following the Parkland shootings, the Education Department proposal is almost certain to receive backlash.

In addition to being a departure from current models of education funding, it’s also in sharp contrast to funding on school safety. “Guidance for grants distributed by the Homeland Security Department that are intended for ‘school preparedness,’ for example, notes that weapons and ammunition are not permitted,” the Times reports.

According to the Education Department, school shootings were not taken into account when programs such as Student Support and Academic Enrichment were established. Previous public comments on the subject by DeVos and her staff members suggest that they will leave the question of whether to arm teachers and other school employees up to individual states.