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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is calling a special legislative session to address the school choice bill as well as other priorities of President-elect Trump’s incoming administration, including immigration law and the ‘disaster aid to the voluntary state.
Lee announced that he would ask the Tennessee General Assembly to call a special session on Monday, January 27 to pass the Education Freedom Act. The governor said he will introduce a legislative disaster relief package addressing recovery needs from Hurricane Helene as well as future natural disasters, and that the session will also address public safety measures regarding immigration, “as the incoming Trump administration has asked states to prepare for policy implementation”.
Tennessee’s announcement came later Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Monday he was calling a special session to help coordinate Trump’s planned crackdown on illegal immigration in the Sunshine State.
Lee issued a joint statement with Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, state House Speaker Cameron Sexton, state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson and state House Majority Leader William Lamberth.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee speaks on stage at the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“We believe the state has a responsibility to act quickly on the issues that matter most to Tennesseans, and there is broad support in the General Assembly and across Tennessee for a special session on the most pressing legislative priorities: the Act of unified educational freedom and a relief package for Hurricane Helene and other disaster recovery efforts,” they said. “Most Tennesseans, regardless of political affiliation, have made it clear that they support empowering parents with school choice, and the best thing we can do for Tennessee students is to provide choices and public school resources without delay.”
The statement added: “Hurricane Helene was an unprecedented disaster in rural, at-risk and distressed communities that cannot bear the local share of the local costs of federal relief funds. The state has the opportunity and the ‘obligation to partner with these affected counties and develop innovative solutions for natural disasters in the future.’
“Finally, the American people elected President Trump with a mandate to enforce immigration laws and protect our communities, and Tennessee must have the resources ready to support the Administration on day one,” they said
“Last year, Governor Lee directed key state agencies to begin preparing for the implementation of federal immigration policy,” Lee’s press secretary, Elizabeth Lane Johnson, said in a told Fox News Digital. “In this special session, we will ensure that the state is in the best position to coordinate with federal, state and local law enforcement to implement the Trump Administration’s plan to enforce federal laws d ‘immigration on the books’.
“President Trump has made it clear that states will play an important role in partnering with his administration to make our communities safer. Tennessee is heeding the call,” he added.
Lee, whose initial school choice proposal failed in the state legislature early last year, spoke to Fox News Digital in November after introducing a second package aimed at increasing parents’ rights.
After Trump’s decisive election victory, the governor argued that the political environment on the ground in Tennessee is not what it was months ago when the first school choice proposal failed.
The election saw a wave of pro-school candidates win at the state level, and Trump was successful in his bid for the White House. Lee told Fox News Digital that he agreed with Trump’s pledge dismantle the US Department of Educationechoing the president-elect’s concern that the federal bureaucracy is entrenched in the ideology of gender and race rather than learning.
Gov. Bill Lee joins other governors for a news conference along the Rio Grande at the US-Mexico border to discuss border concerns on February 4, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
“In this case, the states know best. In Tennessee, we know best what our children need and how best to educate our children. Parents in this state should have a greater say in how their children are educated children, and that will happen if the federal Department of Education is dismantled and those funds are turned over to the states to be used more efficiently and effectively,” Lee said at the time. “President Trump has long believed that school choice is important to the people of this country and that the freedom of education is something that every American should have. He has spoke. He campaigned on it.”
Cars and debris near the Swannanoa River after catastrophic rains from Hurricane Helene flooded areas on October 5, 2024 in Swannanoa, North Carolina. (Steve Exum/Getty Images)
Lee’s new school choice bill, titled the Education Freedom Act of 2025, would build on already approved funding. by the state legislature to allow the state Department of Education to award up to 20,000 scholarships, valued at about $7,000 each, for the upcoming school year to go toward tuition, tutoring, technology and testing costs. The first 10,000 scholarships will be reserved for low-income students whose parents could not afford to send their children to institutions other than public schools in their districts.
In addition to establishing educational freedom grants, Lee’s office said the bill “invests more in public schools and teachers by offering teachers bonuses to recognize their unwavering commitment to student success , increasing funding for K-12 facilities and ensuring that state funding to school districts will never decrease due to attrition.” The governor and General Assembly “will maintain their commitment to public schools by investing hundreds of millions more state dollars in the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) formula and increasing the pay of beginning teachers,” the office said Lee.
The governor also plans to invest more than $450 million in direct disaster relief.
Hurricane Helene “was an unprecedented disaster that primarily affected at-risk and distressed counties, with damage-related eligible costs estimated at $1.2 billion,” Lee’s office said.
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The Disaster Relief Grant Fund (DRG) allocates $240 million “to strengthen Tennessee’s existing disaster relief fund as well as reduce the local cost sharing burden from 12.5 percent to 5 % and fund the state matching requirement to access federal funds and coverage.” Lee’s package also establishes the Hurricane Helene Interest Payment Fund, which allocates $110 million. to “help local governments manage interest on recovery cost loans by covering interest costs at 5% per annum for three years on recovery cost loans.”
Finally, the Governor’s Response and Recovery Fund allocates $100 million “to create a new program modeled after the HEAL Program that will provide flexible financial resources for future emergencies, including agricultural recovery, unemployment assistance and business recovery efforts”. The package also sets aside $20 million to rebuild Hampton High School in Carter County, which was destroyed in Hurricane Helene.
