Spend education dollars helping kids, not putting guns in schools

In the past month, despite apprehension, parents have sent their kids back to school. However, school safety remains a cloud over the U.S. education system, given the persistent school shootings around the country. Secretary Betsy DeVos’ solution for assuaging parents’ worries about school violence is to put more guns in schools.

The Education Department intends to allow states to use the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program (SSAEP) to pay for guns for educators. In a letter to U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., DeVos stated she would take no action to prevent the purchasing of firearms for public schools. This is a dangerous step toward arming teachers, and a gross misuse of funds designed to improve the educational experience of students.

Nearly three quarters of educators feel it’s dangerous and counterproductive to arm teachers. Doing so has a negative effect on learning and school culture. Recall last spring when an armed teacher in Georgia discharged his pistol while on campus. While no students were in the room, what if it had happened a period earlier when that teacher had a full class? What if your child was in that class?

Guns in schools mean a more dangerous environment for our children. In 2018, at least 42 people have been killed and 79 injured at schools. A majority of gun deaths are happening where there are loose gun safety measures. States that rigorously regulate firearms, however, are much more safe. New York is often used as an example of gun control gone amok. Yet over the past 25 years, there have been two school shootings in New York, while Texas has had eight.

Focusing on buying guns for teachers dismisses the immense needs in our public schools. Our students are struggling with issues including traumas in their homes, food insecurity and mental health complications.

Today, Texas students are attempting suicide at an alarming rate; one in eight students surveyed last year admitted attempting suicide. Having unrestricted access to a firearm triples the likelihood that a person will take his or her own life.

Rather than putting the means of ending a life within arm’s reach, schools need to invest more embedded social and emotional education to address the causes of depression, mental illness and trauma.

Our nation’s schools have severe infrastructure needs that cannot be addressed with weak local and federal funding. In Texas, some schools use air conditioning systems from the 1960s that are so loud students can’t concentrate. Our children deserve better than this. Schools need to use federal education funds to invest in infrastructure instead of being tacitly encouraged by Washington to buy an arsenal.

We know that guns + schools = danger. It is unacceptable to take federal dollars designed to make our schools safe and conducive to learning, and use those dollars to accomplish the exact opposite. Are we really going to misuse taxes to turn our educators into a militia? Our education system is already behind. Our teachers need to use these dollars to provide quality education and academic remediation, not carry Remingtons.

Given the serious challenges our schools face in Texas, why would we allow Washington to take our autonomy and our ability to know what’s best for our students? This type of federal intervention in our schools is not what Texas needs. It’s neither safe nor thought-out.

We must demand that the Trump Administration stop promoting reckless solutions to school violence and make explicit that SSAEP funds must not be used for firearm purchases for schools.