Betsy DeVos considers allowing schools to use federal funds to buy guns

WASHINGTON – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is considering allowing states to use federal grant money to buy guns for schools, people familiar with the matter said.

Two people said the question being contemplated inside the department is whether states are allowed to use money available through Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants to buy firearms. Unlike other federal grants, this one does not expressly prohibit such purchases.

The issue was initially raised in grant requests from Texas and Oklahoma, a department official said.

The idea drew swift negative reaction from those who argue the response to school shootings should be fewer guns, not more. But it is likely to find support among gun rights advocates who say that having firearms in schools would make them less likely to be targeted.

“The department is constantly considering and evaluating policy issues, particularly issues related to school safety,” said Education Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Hill. “The secretary nor the department issues opinions on hypothetical scenarios.”

The policy consideration was first reported by the New York Times.

The conversation was sparked because the federal law that created the grants includes few constraints, the people familiar with the matter said. “Congress wrote a vague law and everyone is trying to figure out what it means,” one person said, adding that Congress should clarify its intentions and bar such purchases if it does not want to allow them.

The person added that it is possible DeVos would take no action on this matter – not expressly permitting it nor advising against it. In that case, a state could try to force her hand by using its grant money for gun purchases and seeing if the department tries to block it.

The grant program at issue is meant to be a flexible funding source for states to improve student academic achievement. Exact funding levels depend on annual appropriations but can amount to millions of dollars for states each year.

The program was not created with school safety or firearms in mind. But while another federal program explicitly prohibits use of grant money for guns, these grants do not.

The idea was swiftly met with criticism from several education groups and parents of school shooting victims.

The idea drew fast criticism from Democrats, education groups, gun control activists and parents of school shooting victims.

JoAnn Bartoletti, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, condemned the use of the grant funds – called Title IV in federal education law – for firearms.

“It’s a perverse distortion of Title IV’s goal of enhancing student learning,” Bartoletti said. “Under the guide of flexibility, the secretary continues to abdicate her responsibility to advance sound, research-based efforts to safeguard students.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said he would introduce an amendment to a spending bill pending in the Senate to block the idea, though an aide said he isn’t expecting majority Republicans to allow a vote on it. Murphy has been a leading voice on gun control in the Senate since the Sandy Hook shooting in his home state.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, reacted in angry, personal terms.

“Devos, after my daughter was murdered, you yelled ‘Don’t talk about guns, talk about mental health,’ ” Guttenberg posted to Twitter. “Your brain dead plan will pull money from mental health.”

David Thweatt, the superintendent of Harrold Independent School District in rural north Texas, said he supports schools using federal funds to buy firearms, even though his own district does not apply for the grants. He began a program to train and arm some school employees 11 years ago after a shooting at an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania.

Staff members in the district that are part of the program purchase their own firearms and then are reimbursed. Their training, too, is covered by the district. Thweatt said it is an arrangement that is far cheaper than hiring a security guard.

He argued that buying firearms serves an educational purpose. “You have to make children feel secure. If they’re constantly looking over their shoulder, they’re not learning.”

The conversation about using federal funds for guns appears to be happening independently from deliberations of a school safety commission created by President Trump that is led by DeVos. The commission is expected to include a section in its report on best practices for arming school personnel, several people familiar with that process aid.

During its public meetings, the commission has heard strong arguments both for and against more guns in schools. The commission’s last field visit is set for Thursday in Las Vegas, with a final “listening session” planned for next week.

Trump has called for arming teachers as a way to harden schools and suggested paying them extra if they agree to carry weapons. “You give them a little bit of a bonus, so practically for free, you have now made the school into a hardened target,” he said in February.

DeVos has said that the commission would not consider proposals for gun restrictions. One exception is a proposal to raise the minimum age at which people may buy guns.