NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he's all for President-elect Donald Trump's proposed plan to shut down the U.S. Department of Education (DOE).
"I think Tennessee is best prepared to determine how to spend dollars on behalf of the kids of this state and how they are educated," Lee said during a press avail Wednesday. "I think the federal bureaucracy that was built into DOE in 1979 has created just that—a bureaucracy. I would welcome the opportunity to take the dollars that are spent on the federal DOE bureaucracy and use those dollars into our public school systems."
Those supporting the plan say it's time to give states, not the federal government, control over how money is spent on education.
Critics of the president-elect's plan have pointed out the DOE handles the oversight of federal student loans, civil rights investigations and programs for children with special needs—programs that serve more than seven million students. Those same critics have questioned how those programs would work moving forward.
"I think Tennessee is incredibly capable of determining how dollars should be spent to take care of kids with disabilities, to take care of kids who live in sparse populations or ESL," Lee said. "I think Tennessee is best prepared to determine how to spend dollars on behalf of the children of this state and how they are educated."
The governor went on to call the president-elect's idea "great."
U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty said he's concerned the DOE has strayed too far into social issues beyond the scope of its original mission.
"The department of education has gotten so far off track, many people in the American public would like to see them get out of the business of engaging with the education system at home," Hagerty said. "The ideology they are trying to introduce using federal government funds to impose ideologies that certainly don't square with the values of Tennesseans, it's a real issue."
The move to eliminate the DOE would require congressional action. The president-elect would likely require 60 votes in the Senate, but Republicans will only control 53 seats in the chamber.
It's not yet clear how much support this proposal will have in the new Congress.