Tennessee legislators have filed several bills this year that aim to tackle longstanding challenges in education, such as expanding school choice, enhancing student safety, and curbing distractions from cell phones.

The ongoing debate about book bans in Rutherford County Schools dominated much of the discussion at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, after district librarians said they recently received an email instructing them to pull 150 sexually explicit books from school library shelves.

Despite the fact that the U.S. Department of Education funnels more than $800 million into Tennessee alone, some leading Republican legislators have signaled support for President-Elect Donald Trump’s promise to eliminate the department altogether.

Despite criticizing Gov. Bill Lee’s plan previously as “terrible,” Representative Scott Cepicky’s, R-Culleoka, expects lawmakers to iron out their differences about school choice legislation next year.

A handful of local residents spoke to the Rutherford County Board of Education Thursday to express their support and opposition to a recent decision by the board to ban six books from school libraries.