TN Gov Backs Trump Education Plans
Lee says Tennessee knows best
It’s no surprise that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (once called a RINO by Trump) is now enthusiastically supporting the incoming President’s plans to abolish the U.S. Department of Education.
Lee also supports other bad ideas, like school vouchers - a key element of the Trump agenda that was rejected in Kentucky, Nebraska, and Colorado on election day. Of course, that didn’t stop Lee from filing his school voucher legislation on the day after the election.
Chalkbeat has more on Lee’s support of ending the Dept. of Ed:
Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday that he’d welcome closing the U.S. Department of Education under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, adding that states can do a better job of deciding how to spend federal dollars on students.
“I believe that Tennessee would be more capable than the federal government of designing a strategy for spending federal dollars in Tennessee,” Lee told reporters when asked about the prospect.
This is pretty laughable coming from the leader of a state that ranks 44th in investment in students and 45th in teacher compensation.
A new report reveals that average teacher pay in the state ranks Tennessee 44th in the nation – and among the lowest in the Southeast. Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia all pay their teachers more than Tennessee does.
It’s also amusing because Tennessee consistently earns an “F” for effort when it comes to school funding, with analysts noting that relative to fiscal capacity, Tennessee just isn’t investing what it should in public education.
And, as the Chalkbeat piece points out, Tennessee also doesn’t do so well when it comes to policies that support students with disabilities - the very students the Dept. of Ed works to protect by enforcing key protections.
Recently, the Tennessee Disability Coalition gave the state a “D” grade on its annual performance scorecard that includes education services.
Students with disabilities comprise a significant part of Tennessee’s public education system.
To be clear: The leader of a state that earns an “F” grade in investment in students, is near the bottom in the nation (and the Southeast) for teacher compensation, and consistently fails its most vulnerable students wants to remove all guardrails and just be trusted to “do what’s best?”
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