Governor Lee backs proposal to dump the Department of Education, despite questions what it might mean for students with special needs and rural Tennessee

Governor Bill Lee (Photo by Governor Bill Lee)

You can add Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to the growing list of Tennessee lawmakers who support President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.

Lee posted a video on social media Wednesday to proclaim his support for the idea, even though the federal department is directly responsible for funneling more than $800 million to Tennessee.

“I think the federal bureaucracy that was built into the Department of Education starting in 1979 has created just that, a bureaucracy. I would welcome the opportunity to take the dollars that are spent on the federal Department of Education bureaucracy and use those dollars into our public school systems. To spend them wisely on the education of our children,” said Lee. “I think it’s a great idea that President Trump has. The particulars will have to be worked out, but I stand ready to work with the future President in determining how our state will spend those federal dollars more efficiently and more effectively and to benefit the kids in Tennessee.”

Lee’s statement follows other Republican leaders including Tennessee House Education Instruction Subcommittee Chair Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, and potential future gubernatorial candidate Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, who also threw their support behind the idea of ditching the Department of Education.

If the future President were to eliminate the department, it remains unclear what that would mean for Tennessee, or the hundreds of millions it provides each year in various education grants.

Last year Republican lawmakers held a series of hearings to investigate the impact if Tennessee were to reject the more than a billion dollars it receives from the federal government for education, including funds from the Department of Education and other federal sources.

At those hearings representatives from the Tennessee Department of Education said the state is receiving nearly $470 million this year from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) alone, that includes Title I-A funding to support low-achieving students and those from economically disadvantaged families. Tennessee also received $310 million through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and $30 million through the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.

Representatives from the state department also said local school districts depend heavily on federal Department of Education funds, with 62 percent of the state’s public schools receiving the ESEA grant alone. This funding is especially important for rural counties that Republicans represent.

During a hearing last year, the State Comptroller said even before COVID related education funding, federal dollars, including those provided by the Department of Education, made up more than 18 percent of some rural Tennessee school districts’ revenues.

Image by the Tennessee Comptroller

Representative John Ray Clemmons (Photo by the Tennessee General Assembly)

“Federal funds tend to be higher in districts with lower incomes or more rural areas and they tend to be a lower percentage of school district revenues in more affluent areas,” said Linda Wesson, Assistant Director of the Comptroller’s Office of Research and Education Accountability in that hearing.

Questions about how federal dollars would flow to students with special needs and school districts have led to opposition of the President-elect’s proposal from disability advocates, school leaders, and Tennessee Democrats.

Representative John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, was among them, criticizing Governor Lee’s support for the proposal on social media Wednesday night.

“Apparently these guys fail to understand how the federal appropriations process works. Or they do but opt to ignorantly repeat whatever nonsense their boss says. Of course, @GovBillLee just wants to eliminate public schools altogether, so I doubt he really cares either way,” wrote Clemmons.