Finally, after a stormy confirmation process, Betsy DeVoss is our secretary of Education. Her dedication to school choice, including school vouchers and charter schools — whatever it takes to compete with the public school monopoly that has resulted in so many failing schools, especially in the inner cities — makes her a fine choice.
To me, the most interesting exchange during her confirmation hearings occurred when the democratic congressman from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, asked her “whether guns have a place in or around schools.” It was at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct., after all, that 20 school children were killed by a deranged gunman. DeVoss replied that it depended on circumstances and therefore was up to the “locals and states to decide.”
Murphy and his fellow Democrats were apoplectic, but DeVoss was merely reaffirming a principle that goes back to our Founding Fathers and is ensconced in our Constitution. It is called “Federalism,” meaning that there is a division of power, and responsibility, between the states and the national government, and the Federalist principle makes the “locals and states,” meaning the local and state governments, primarily responsible for the education of their citizens. That includes providing a safe environment in which their students are taught.
The theory behind Federalism is that every state and locality faces uniquely different challenges, and since the state and local leaders, both political and civic, are more familiar with those local challenges, and their causes, they will know better than the national government how to address them.
DeVoss gave an example. Suppose your school was located in rural countryside, in which grizzly bears constantly trespassed on your school grounds. That might make you more inclined to keep a gun or two at your school, or hire armed security, than if it was located in a bucolic community in a San Francisco suburb.
DeVoss’s point is that leaders of the “locals and states,” working with school officials, teachers, parents, and law enforcement, should together determine what, if any, safety precautions are needed to protect students, whether it’s installing security cameras and screening devices, changing locks, and even — if called for — armed security. After all, armed guards are now in urban schools nationwide as part of a program created during the Clinton administration.
Interestingly, Rep. Murphy challenged Ms. DeVoss to visit Connecticut to get better acquainted with “the role of guns in schools.” If she does, a visit to Sandy Hook Elementary School might be enlightening — for both of them — since, in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, the local school board unanimously voted to hire armed guards to protect the kids at Sandy Hook, in order to prevent a repeat of the original mass-murder tragedy.