Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee [pictured here] told Fox News Digital that he believes President-elect Donald Trump's decisive victory signals success for a second school choice bill introduced to the state legislature this week after his first proposal failed this year.
Lee said he agreed with Trump's promises to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, echoing the president-elect's concern over the federal bureaucracy becoming entrenched with gender and race ideology rather than learning.
"I think it is a great idea to dismantle the Department of Education federally. And I'm a strong believer that policy at the state level should be handled by states, that states know best," Lee told Fox News Digital. "In this case, states certainly know best. We know best in Tennessee what our children need and how best to educate our kids. The parents of this state should be given a greater influence on how their kids are educated, and that will happen if the federal Department of Education is dismantled and those funds are delivered to states to be used in a more efficient and more effective way."
Lee said the political environment on the ground in the state is not what it was months ago when the first school choice proposal failed in the state legislature. Since then, the election saw a wave of pro-school choice candidates win at the state-level, and Trump succeeded in his bid for the White House....
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Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.