Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump did not discuss education or school safety in the first debate between the two presidential candidates Tuesday, which happened less than a week after a mass shooting at a Georgia high school.
Moderators did not ask the candidates about a Sept. 4 attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., in which a 14-year-old student has been charged with killing two students and two teachers with an AR-15-style rifle, an act that has stirred up perennial debates over school safety and gun laws.
The Georgia shooting has also raised questions about how law enforcement and educators can more effectively intervene when youth are in crisis. In 2023, the FBI received a cluster of tips that the suspect had threatened a school shooting in an online forum. But when the boy denied making those posts, local law enforcement found there were no crimes to charge him with and alerted the middle school in his former district.
The response to that alert may have been complicated, violence prevention experts told Education Week, because school had let out for the summer, and the shooting took place after the suspect transferred to a neighboring district.
Two days after the Georgia high school shooting, a teenager was killed in another shooting at a high school in Joppatowne, Md.
Kamala Harris on school safety
In the wake of that tragedy, Harris has renewed calls to ban assault-style weapons. The Democratic Party platform also calls on lawmakers to close loopholes in background check laws, pass laws that require gun owners to safely store their firearms, and expand federal funding for gun violence research.
President Joe Biden championed the most significant piece of gun legislation in three decades when he signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act following the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. That law closed some loopholes in gun-purchasing laws and provided support for states to create and enact red flag laws, which allow courts to suspend an individual’s access to firearms if they are deemed a threat to themselves or others. The legislation also provided additional funding for school safety, grant funding for states to recruit and train new school social workers and psychologists, and measures to help schools cut red tape for using Medicaid to pay for mental health treatments.
Biden also put Harris in charge of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which he created through executive order in 2023 with the support of school shooting survivors.
Donald Trump on school safety
Trump, who is endorsed by the National Rifle Association, has resisted efforts to change gun laws, instead blaming mental health and societal factors for school violence.
In his previous term, Trump signed the STOP School Violence Act into law following 2018 mass school shootings in Parkland, Fla., and Santa Fe, Texas. That law provides grant funding for school security measures, including physical security measures, like metal detecotrs; anonymous threat reporting systems; school-based threat assessment; and training students about the importance of violence prevention.
Trump also created a federal school safety task force, led by Betsy DeVos, who served as the education secretary in his administration. That panel assembled a report that highlighted school climate and safety practices familiar to many educators, like positive behavioral interventions and supports, or PBIS. It also said arming school employees could be appropriate in some situations, such as rural campuses with slow response times from law enforcement.
Where the candidates stand on education
The federal role in education is relatively small compared to the influence and funding provided by states and districts. Despite that, the campaign has spotlighted education issues.
Harris selected a former teacher, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as her running mate. The Democratic Party platform calls for universal prekindergarten, expanded career and technical education, and a reduced emphasis on standardized testing.
Trump is running on plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, crack down on how schools teach about issues like race and sexuality, reverse a Biden administration rule on the rights of transgender students, and promote “universal school choice.”
