DeVos won't try to block school gun purchases made with federal funds

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
(Image credit: Getty Images)

"I have no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff under the [Elementary and Secondary Education Act]," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a letter Friday to Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

The letter argued DeVos does not have the authority to stop schools from using federal funds to purchase weapons to arm educators. The decision, she said, belongs to local school districts and administrators. "I will not take any action that would expand or restrict the responsibilities and flexibilities granted to state and local education agencies by Congress," Devos wrote.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.