DeVos won’t block schools buying guns

WASHINGTON – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos suggested she won’t stand in the way of local school districts spending federal funds to buy guns to protect themselves and their students.

Posting a letter Friday evening on Twitter that she sent to U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., DeVos said that federal law provides districts “substantial flexibility” in how they use funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and that Congress gave neither her nor the department the authority to decide otherwise.

“Let me be clear: I have no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff under the ESEA . ... Congress did not authorize me or the Department to make those decisions,” she said in the letter on the department’s press secretary’s Twitter feed.

The letter comes amid widespread criticism of DeVos after reports, including one in The New York Times, that she might allow federal funding to be used for the purchase of firearms for the first time under a Student Support and Academic Enrichment grant program.

In the wake of a high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, early this year, school officials have been looking for ways to improve security, and DeVos was named by President Donald Trump to lead a commission looking into the issue. Education Department officials have told other media, including The Washington Post, that school officials in Texas and Oklahoma have asked whether they could use funds from that grant program to purchase firearms or provide firearm training.

But DeVos’ reply to Scott appears to make clear she does not plan to issue any policy for or against the use of those funds for the purchase of firearms, while potentially allowing school districts to use the funds because it’s not specifically prohibited in the statute.