North Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill that would reward teachers who agree to get basic firearms training and carry guns in their classrooms.
The legislation filed on Wednesday would give teachers who carry guns a 5 percent salary increase after they undergo basic police training. The plan, under the School Security Act of 2019, including the salary increases and training, would cost $9.3 million. It would also create a position called “teacher resource officer.”
For the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the funded ratio of teacher resource officers to students per school is up to one teacher resource officer for every 500 students and will not be more than the funded cap of 3,000 teacher resource officers. They would have the same arrest powers as police officers.
In the past, legislative efforts to put more guns in North Carolina schools have stalled. State lawmakers introduced a similar bill this year but it didn’t provide a pay raise for teachers, according to CNN, and that measure died in committee. Some Republican lawmakers introduced the same bill last session and it also died in committee.