Is this what we want or need in our schools, um Mr. and Mrs. GOP???
(You always rant about better schools under the GOP - oops)
Education Department should get a new name:
Department of Irrational Insanity
NOTE: Re-edited and re-posted (August 24, 2018) from the original post for more clarity. The following story speaks for itself from the NY TIMES with this startling headline.
Betsy DeVos is Said to Weigh Letting School
Districts to Use
Federal Funds to Buy Guns
WASHINGTON (August 22, 2018) — The Education Department is considering whether to allow states to use federal funds to purchase guns for educators after receiving queries from *Texas and Oklahoma.
*Texas in many school districts allow staff to carry weapons on campus and the Texas Education Agency said it had asked Washington for guidance back in April after schools started asking whether they can use the grant money to cover the cost of guns. Seems their problem took on even greater urgency after 10 people were killed in a school shooting outside Houston in May.
FACTS:
1. It would be an unprecedented reversal of a longstanding position taken by the federal government that says it should not pay to provide guns to schools.
2. It would also undermine Congress that has restricted the use of federal fund for guns in schools.
3. Congress last March passed the school safety bill that allocated $50 million a year to local school districts, but expressly prohibited the use of the money for firearms.
Now DeVos and her department is eyeing a “loophole” in the Federal education law known as “The Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program” that uses federal grants and does not mention the prohibition of gun purchases.
That omission might allow DeVos to use at her discretion to approve any state or district plan to use grant funds for gun purchases, ammunition, and gun training.
Overall, that grant program (some $1 billion) is part of “The Every Student Succeeds Act,” and it is intended for academic and enrichment opportunities in the country’s poorest schools, and it calls for school districts to use the money toward three goals: (1) Providing a well-rounded education, (2) improving school conditions for learning, and (3) improving the use of technology for digital literacy.
(Note: No mention of guns for marksmanship training of teachers or staff).
Further, in weighing this proposal, the Education Department has also taken into account that school shootings were not a consideration when Congress passed that bill – the “Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015.”
However, three of the remaining architects of the law — Rep. Scott (D-VA) and Sens. Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) — have all opposed the idea of arming teachers. They all say the student support grant was created from funds from other programs that were collapsed in the Every Student Succeeds Act that addressed issues like mental health, violence prevention, bullying and harassment.
Education Department officials acknowledged that should they carry out the DeVos proposal, it appears to be the first time that any federal agency has authorized the purchase of guns without congressional mandate and approval.
Experts say: Although no such restrictions exist in the federal education law, it could undermine the grant program’s adoption of “drug and violence prevention.
That would seem hypocritical about the intended purpose of the grant program in the first place.
Associated: DHS grants for example are for “School Preparedness,” and for not guns or ammunition. The Trump administration has twice tried to eliminate that grant program from their budget, but Congress drafted a spending bill after the Parkland, FL school shooting and increased grant money by $700 million.
This idea also drew swift criticism from Democrats, teacher unions, education groups, and gun control activists, who said the response to school shootings should be fewer guns, not more as indicated below.
However, Trump and others have argued that arming teachers would “harden schools and make them less likely targets for mass shootings.”
Yep turn a school into a highly armed fortress and super challenge for more aggressive attacks: “Wow see what we did, we hit that heavily armed school and did our deed” – that would be the rally call of some guns nuts (IMV).
For example:
House DEM Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called the idea “one of the most egregious, short-sighted and dangerous executive branch abuses of our education system in modern history. Secretary DeVos continues to lead an anti-student and anti-teacher campaign on behalf of special interests and the NRA that rejects proven and effective initiatives to ensure a safe, welcoming school climate for children.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), the Sandy Hook school shooting, swiftly introduced an amendment that would block the Education Department from using the funds to arm schools, saying: “The Secretary of Education cares more about the firearms industry’s bottom line than the safety of our kids, and that should scare parents to death.”
Martin West, professor of education at Harvard University, expressed skepticism saying: “It seems very hard to imagine that members of Congress drafting Title IV envisioned that the funds would be used to arm teachers.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) the second largest education Union behind the NEA said: “Betsy DeVos wants to turn schools into armed fortresses and make kids and educators less safe, and to turn the federal government into an arms dealer for schools. That's insane, and instead of after-school programs or counselors, programs that are critical for creating safe and welcoming schools and addressing the mental health needs of kids, DeVos wants to turn schools into armed fortresses and make kids and educators less safe,” Weingarten concluded.
John Feinblatt, president of “Everytown for Gun Safety,” called the plan outrageous, adding: “America's teachers are already forced to spend their own meager salaries on basic school supplies, but the Trump Administration would rather use taxpayer money to buy them guns. The solution to school shootings isn't putting loaded guns in the hands of teachers — it's passing laws that will keep guns away from people who have dangerous histories.”
DeVos style: After the Parkland, FL shooting, Trump convened a federal commission on school safety, chaired by DeVos, to examine topics like mental and behavioral health resources, building security, and the role of law enforcement in schools.
The commission has held several public hearings where educators and advocates from across the country have asked for expanded support staff and services, including school counselors, and additional security measures. Members of the commission have also visited school districts, like in rural Arkansas, where armed employees can be found at schools in areas not easily reached by law enforcement.
DeVos said the commission would not consider the role of guns in school shootings, but she later indicated that the panel would look narrowly at specific issues, including age limits for firearm purchases.
Last month, Ms. DeVos’s assistant secretary for the office of elementary and secondary education, Jason Botel, reiterated that point in a congressional hearing.
That prompted Rep. Donald M. Payne Jr., (D-NJ) to question the Education Department. In a letter to Mr. Botel, he asked if the department was planning to arm teachers. But the department issued a statement saying that it did not plan to do so because “this is a function appropriately reserved for the states.”
The commission plans to issue recommendations by the end of the year.
DeVos seems to be saying to everyone except herself and like-minded morons: “Kiss my ass — I'll do things my way.”
The least qualified and inexperienced ever to lead Education
Newly-renovated office just for DeVos
My 2 cents: First of all and as I’ve said a very long time, Betsy DeVos is a train wreck and hands down the most-awful and possibly the worse education secretary ever. This insane possible move by her underscores my assessment of her.
Parents and tax payers all across the country should raise up and work to turn down this insane proposal.
And for Congress: Get off your collective asses and stop this utter insanity. This is not the way to send tax dollars – and that is propping up the gun industry and helping the NRA and nitwits who think more guns in schools (or on campuses or elsewhere) is the solution to gun violence problem – stupidity about having more guns seems to prevail and they should not.
More is NOT always better, e.g., nukes in every corner of the globe will deter
nuclear war, right, ore so some say. I guess, until until some lunatic fringe group gets one and sets it off in downtown (your city) and then the domino effect kicks in and then: Bye, bye Mother Earth. Who can possibly justify more nukes is better with that scenario handing over us, just like now saying more guns is better to stop gun violence.
In combat and on the front lines, yes, more firepower is needed to win – but not in our schools and playgrounds or college campuses — nothing to gain or win there (e.g., Sandy Hook and numerous other examples)…
Now the question is: What will this Congress do? Hopefully real soon we’ll see.
Thanks for stopping by.
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