DeVos eyes plan to purchase guns for schools with federal funds

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos testifies during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) more > The Education Department is reportedly considering letting states purchase firearms for schools using federal funds, reversing earlier policies and despite laws that bar states from using cash from Washington that way. According to a report Wednesday evening in the New York Times , the department is considering using a program called the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants to support weapons purchases. The SSAE program’s language does not expressly ban states from using federal funds for gun buys for educators, although, according to the Times, many other parts of federal education law do, most recently a $50 million per year school-security program passed in March. Citing “multiple people with knowledge of the plan,” the Times reported that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos could “use her discretion to approve any state or district plans to use grant funding for firearms and firearm training” under SSAE if the proposal goes forward. Education spokeswoman Liz Hill told the Times that the department constantly reconsiders school-security policies but neither “the secretary nor the department issues opinions on hypothetical scenarios.” The Washington Times welcomes your comments on Spot.im, our third-party provider. Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.

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