Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee told Fox News Digital that he believes President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory signals the success of a second school choice bill introduced in the state legislature this week after failure of his first proposal this year.

Lee said he agreed with Trump’s promises to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, echoing the president-elect’s concerns that the federal bureaucracy is becoming rooted in gender ideology and race rather than learning.

“I think it’s a great idea to dismantle the Ministry of Education at the federal level. And I firmly believe that state-level policy should be run by the states, that the states know best,” Lee told Fox News Digital. “In this case, it is certainly the States that know best. We in Tennessee know best what our children need and how best to educate them. Parents in this state should have greater influence over how their children are educated, and that will happen if the federal Department of Education is dismantled and these funds are returned to the states to be used more efficient and effective. »

Lee said the political environment on the ground in the state is not what it was a few months ago when the first school choice proposal failed in the state legislature. Since then, the election has seen a wave of pro-school candidates achieve victory at the state level, and Trump has a successful bid for the White House.

Trump plans to shift control of school funding to local communities, but has yet to choose DOE secretary

Governor Bill Lee discusses the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene at the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, October 2, 2024, in Nashville. (Mark Zaleski/Tennessee Network/USA TODAY via Imagn Images)

“President Trump has long believed that school choice is important to the people of this country and that educational freedom is something that all Americans could have. He has spoken about it. He has campaigned there- on it,” Lee said. “One thing is very obvious in what happened last week. And President Trump is very clear about his policies, and the American people were very clear about their acceptance of those policies last week. They, with a mandate loudly, said we love what we We want him to execute these things and for President Trump to have a meaningful and clear understanding and be the leader, frankly, on the issue of school choice All of these things we. enjoy as we move into this next session.”

Lee’s new school choice bill, called the Education Freedom Act of 2025, was jointly introduced in the House and Senate on Wednesday.

Tap into already approved funding by the state legislatureThe bill would allow the state Department of Education to award up to 20,000 scholarships – worth about $7,000 each – for the next school year, to be spent on tuition, tutoring, technology and testing. The first 10,000 scholarships would be reserved for low-income students whose parents could not otherwise afford to send their children to institutions other than public schools in their district.

Democrats have portrayed school choice as disenfranchising low-income students, but Lee said he thinks otherwise.

“Every child is unique. Every child has different learning styles. Every child has a different life situation. And every family should have the opportunity to choose the best path for their child,” the governor said. “In particular, I don’t think that only wealthy families who can afford a private option, that those families should be the only ones and those children should be the only ones to have that option of choice.”

President-elect Trump has been making his Cabinet nominations. (Jabin Botsford/Washington Post via Getty Images)

“Often, opponents will say that school choice initiatives harm public schools. I think it’s just the opposite,” Lee said. “This legislation we’re introducing is actually an education policy initiative. It’s not just an education freedom scholarship bill. It includes historic funding for public schools, bonuses for teachers, for public school teachers We will include alongside this legislation a teacher salary increase plan that will put us among the top 15 states in the country for teacher salary increases.

BETSY DEVOS JOINS TRUMP’S CALL TO “DISSAND” EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AND “REACT” FAMILIES

Lee noted that about 30 states already offer school choice, 12 of which have universal school choice, and several of those states have adopted their initiatives in recent years.

“Americans are growing in number, and now the majority of them, as evidenced by the last election, have come to believe that school choice is the way of the future,” Lee said . “It’s the answer to challenging the status quo. It’s how we take America’s educational rankings and results, which were once the best in the world, from the bottom of the list compared to the other countries, to bring them back to the results that we hope for this country.

“It’s a way to challenge, change and introduce innovation into an education system that has become outdated, bloated and bureaucratic,” Lee said. “And we see this happening all across America. We believe it’s going to happen in Tennessee. This is an extremely important moment in our country for parental rights and for the future of children and their education.”

Lee said his schooling in Tennessee took place before the creation of the U.S. Department of Education in 1979.

“We knew how to do it then. We know how to do it now,” Lee said, explaining that Tennessee created a funding formula that “uniquely recognizes the needs of children with disabilities, dyslexia and English as a second language. We know how to fund the education of Tennessee’s children. We know this much better than those in a bureaucratic institution like the Federal Ministry of Education. I think President Trump is absolutely true. I think it’s a great idea.”

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee examines a section of Interstate 26 above the Nolichucky River that collapsed during flooding in Erwin on October 1, 2024. (Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

“As governor, I would welcome the partnership with President Trump that would allow states to choose and determine how best to spend their children’s education dollars,” he added.

If Trump succeeds in eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, experts expect the process to take several years.

With Cabinet nominations underway, Fox News Digital asked Lee who he would like to see as Trump’s education secretary and whether the governor would consider running for office.

“What I will say and what I hope is that whoever takes this position will be looking to find themselves out of a job,” Lee said. “It’s going to take the right kind of leader who really understands, and I think, who really understands how states can operate and how problematic the federal bureaucracies in the states are. The governors understand that. There are a lot of people who would be good qualified for it, but the next person has to hope to get out of a job.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

On the heels of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helen, the governor said the new school choice bill would also dedicate state dollars from sports gaming revenue to construction and maintenance of public school facilities. The bill also provides one-time $2,000 bonuses to every teacher in the state and promises additional funding for school districts affected by declining enrollment.

“We can have the best public schools in America,” Lee said. “We can commit the right financial amount and focus. We can strengthen and support our public schools in unprecedented ways and provide parents with the freedom and opportunity to choose. At the same time, these are not mutually exclusive. mutually, they shouldn’t be. We should improve every educational opportunity for every child in our state and we will do so through this legislation.