Secretary of Education and noted maritime enthusiast Betsy DeVos has directed her department to consider allowing states to use federal grant funds to purchase firearms for teachers and staff members, according to The New York Times. Although Congress' most recent school safety bill expressly forbade such expenditures, DeVos and her team are reportedly looking at using a separate source of funds—the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program, or SSAE, which is bound by no such prohibition—for purchasing weapons.

SSAE grants, according to the law that authorizes them, are made to "provide all students with access to a well-rounded education"; "improve school conditions for student learning"; and "improve the academic achievement and digital literacy of all students." It is a vital supplement to the budgets of school districts in low-income areas, and the size of each grant is determined in part by how many children served live below the poverty line.

According to the Times, which cites to "people familiar with the department's thinking," officials believe that buying handguns to arm educators—a proposal championed in the aftermath of Parkland by, among many others, President Trump—may be allowable under the SSAE as a method of "improving school conditions."

The corresponding statute includes a non-exhaustive list of programs that would "improve school conditions," as Congress intended that specific term to mean. Among them include mental health services; wellness and nutritional education; mentoring for at-risk students; anti-bullying initiatives, and dropout, domestic violence, sexual harassment, substance abuse, and suicide prevention. Other traditional uses of SSAE grants include programs that provide college and career counseling; encourage the development of civics curricula; boost access to technology; and improve STEM instruction, especially for poor and underrepresented minority students.

A 2016 survey found that teachers in this country spend an average of $530 of their own money on supplies each year. 74 percent of respondents reported purchasing notebooks, binders, pens, and pencils; 56 percent reported buying books; 26 percent said they provided clothes to their students. In high-poverty areas, the average increases to $672, and those teachers are the likeliest to report buying food and snacks for their classrooms.

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