Georgia Lieutenant Governor Proposes $10,000 Stipend for Teachers to Carry Guns in Schools

Proposed legislation sets aside state funding for firearms training while also enforcing stricter school safety plans; bill faces opposition from the Georgia Association of Educators citing teachers' role as educators, not law enforcement.

• Republican Lieutenant Gov. Burt Jones of Georgia proposed legislation that promises a $10,000 annual stipend to school teachers who carry a gun at school to increase campus safety. The legislation would employ state funding to provide schools and teachers with the option to receive firearms training and certification.
• The plan also suggests stricter guidelines for existing school safety plans and additionally seeks to allocate more money to schools that hire school resource officers with police certification. However, it emphasizes that these are not mandates, but decisions to be taken at the level of individual school boards depending on their unique needs.
• The Georgia Association of Educators expressed strong opposition to the proposal. Lisa Morgan, the president of the association, emphasized that teachers should not be armed and that introducing more firearms into schools is not an effective way to address violence. She suggested that legislative efforts should be directed toward hiring more counselors instead.
• Weapons on school premises have been a contentious topic in recent times, especially after a mass shooter killed six people, including three children, at The Covenant School in Nashville. Several states in the United States have begun preparing legislation to allow more teachers and school staff to carry firearms to reduce gun violence in K-12 schools.
• Jones' proposal is modeled on a failed Texas program that planned to offer teachers an extra $25,000 a year if they took firearms and mental-health training. Current rules in Georgia already permit school boards to allow trained non-officers, including teachers, to carry guns at schools, although the number of districts that actually opt to do this is unclear.

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