Should Teachers Get Extra Pay for Carrying on Campus?

In virtually all of the school districts where armed school staff are present, those educators and staff members are carrying on a volunteer basis. They receive no extra pay for keeping a gun on their person in case of an attack on campus, and often they’re responsible for paying for the training that’s mandated before they can bear arms on the clock. 

In Campbell County, Wyoming, there’s now an interesting debate about whether those employees who are serving as a first line of response should get a financial reward for doing so. 

At the district’s Armed Educator Committee meeting this month, trustees discussed giving educators who sign up for the training — which begins with 24 hours of live-fire handgun training and eight hours of scenario-based training — their regular daily pay, in line with compensation for other “professional development” training days.

At Tuesday’s regular board meeting, trustees Mary Brunner and Tim Hallinan said they want to show extra appreciation to the teachers who choose to carry a gun in their classrooms.

“I think that’s an obligation that probably a lot of us would never even consider,” Hallinan said. “Pretty tough, when there’s some danger, and I think that they need to have a little bit of extra compensation for that.”

Other board members expressed concern about incentivizing district employees to opt for concealed carry.

“I appreciate this discussion, but I … feel like this creates a bit of a perverse incentive,” Mark Christensen said. “I think that if you want to do this, you do it, I think that paying someone to do it is different.”

I tend to agree with Christensen. I think it’s entirely appropriate for educators and staffers to have their training paid for in addition to getting their regularly daily pay while they’re undergoing that education. This is professional development, as far as I’m concerned. I’d even be open to the idea of the district subsidizing or paying for their firearm and ammunition (including a certain number of rounds each month to be used for training purposes). 

But this isn’t an extracurricular activity like coaching a football team or running the drama club. Giving teachers additional pay for additional work is fine, but the vast majority of armed school staff will still be doing the same job they always do. We should want these educators to do this because they’re concerned for their safety and the safety of students, not because there’s some extra money coming their way if they agree to carry a gun on the job. 

Brunner said she believed the training requirement was a high enough bar to deter educators from going through the application process specifically for the stipend. 

“I would feel that way as well if we weren’t requiring the training, the time away from the job and the exception that they will have to engage an active shooter,” Brunner said. “I believe we’re expecting another level from employees.”

Superintendent Alex Ayers said he shared concerns about incentivizing staff to go through the armed educator process, but added that he believed the $500 stipend wasn’t attractive enough to be concerning.

“I do think we don’t want to heavily financially incentivize folks doing this, they’re doing it for the right reasons,” Ayers said. “I think the $500 is a reasonable consideration.”

All things considered, $500 isn’t much of an incentive, so Ayers and Brunner have a legitimate point. But if educators and staffers come to expect that they’ll get paid extra for carrying on the clock, who’s to say that a significant number of them will decide that $500 isn’t worth the trouble and demand more money? 

The idea of providing teachers and staffers with a bonus for being armed on campus comes from a good place. I’m just not sure it’s a good idea. Despite the best of intentions, it could come with some unintended consequences that lead to fewer armed staff than what we see today. 

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