Betsy DeVos is reportedly considering letting schools use federal funds to purchase guns

Betsy DeVos.
(Image credit: Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

The Department of Education is weighing whether to let states use federal funds to buy guns for teachers, several people familiar with the matter told The New York Times on Wednesday.

The federal government has long held the position that it should not provide schools money to buy firearms, and when Congress passed a school safety bill in March allocating $50 million to school districts, lawmakers stipulated that the money could not be used to purchase weapons. But Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has found a potential loophole in the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants, the Times reports. That program has not explicitly banned weapons purchases, and unless Congress takes legislative action, DeVos could approve state or district plans that use the grants to buy guns and pay for training, the Times says.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.