Law Arming Some Teachers In Tennessee Schools Won’t Affect Insurance Rates For Now

The prospect of increasing insurance costs has been just one hurdle for the new gun law, which is also narrow in terms of which educators it lets start carrying. Credit Wikimedia / selbst fotografiert

Some Tennessee teachers could carry guns in class this year, but whether they do or not likely won’t depend on how it affects their school’s insurance rates.  This school year retired police will be allowed to carry in class, though it seems few if any will.

This spring, state lawmakers hoping to arm more teachers ended up with a compromise, requiring both police training and experience.   Officials say maybe only a couple hundred educators in the state even qualify.

Efforts to arm teachers have stumbled in places like Oregon and Indiana over insurance.  But the Tennessee Risk Management Trust, an agency providing liability coverage for around a hundred school districts, just decided for the moment its rates are not going up.

Even so, hardly any districts appear likely to start letting educators carry.  Superintendents still have the option to say no, and many did long before the insurance question came up.