Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced that he will call a special session to implement President-elect Trump’s immigration agenda and a school choice bill.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is calling a special legislative session to address his school choice bill, as well as other prioritizes of President-elect Trump’s incoming administration, such as immigration law and disaster relief in the Volunteer State.
Lee announced that he would call for the Tennessee General Assembly to convene a special session on Monday, Jan. 27, to pass the Education Freedom Act. The governor said he will introduce a disaster relief legislative package addressing recovery needs for Hurricane Helene, as well as future natural disasters, and that the session will also tackle public safety measures regarding immigration, “as the incoming Trump Administration has called on states to prepare for policy implementation.”
The announcement from Tennessee came after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Monday that he was calling a special session of his own to help coordinate Trump’s planned illegal immigration crackdown 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.
“We believe the state has a responsibility to act quickly on issues that matter most to Tennesseans, and there is widespread support in the General Assembly and across Tennessee for a special session on the most pressing legislative priorities: the unified Education Freedom Act and a comprehensive relief package for Hurricane Helene and other disaster recovery efforts,” they said. “The majority of 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 deliver choices and public school resources without delay.”
The statement added: “Hurricane Helene was an unprecedented disaster across rural, at-risk, and distressed communities that cannot shoulder the local cost share of federal relief funds on their own. The state has an opportunity and obligation to partner with these impacted counties and develop innovative solutions for natural disasters going forward.”
“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, Gov. Lee directed key state agencies to begin preparing for federal immigration policy implementation,” Lee’s press secretary, Elizabeth Lane Johnson, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “In this special session, we will ensure the state is best positioned to coordinate with federal, state, and local law enforcement to implement the Trump Administration’s plan to enforce the federal immigration laws on the books.”
“President Trump has made it clear that states will play a major role in partnering with his Administration to make our communities safer. Tennessee is heeding the call,” she added.
Lee, whose initial school choice proposal failed in the state legislature earlier last year, spoke to Fox News Digital in November upon introducing a second package aimed at increasing parental rights.
After Trump’s decisive election win, the governor argued that the political environment on the ground in Tennessee is not what it was months before when the first school choice proposal failed.
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. Lee told Fox News Digital that he agreed with Trump’s promise 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.
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“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 at the time. “President Trump has long believed that school choice is important for the people of this country and that education freedom is something that all Americans could have. He’s talked about it. He campaigned on it.”
Lee’s new school choice bill, titled the Education Freedom Act of 2025, would draw from funding already approved 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 next school year to be spent on tuition, tutoring, technology and examination expenses. The first 10,000 scholarships would be set aside for low-income students whose parents might not otherwise afford to send their children to institutions other than the public schools in their districts.
In addition to establishing Education Freedom Scholarships, Lee’s office said the bill “further invests in public schools and teachers by delivering teacher bonuses to recognize their unwavering commitment to student success, increasing K-12 facilities funding, and ensuring state funding to school districts will never decrease due to disenrollment.” The governor and the General Assembly “will maintain their commitment to public schools by further investing hundreds of millions of state dollars in the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) formula, and raising starting teacher pay,” Lee’s office said.
The governor is also planning to invest more than $450 million in direct disaster relief.
Hurricane Helene “was an unprecedented disaster that primarily impacted at-risk and distressed counties, with eligible damage-related costs estimated at $1.2 billion,” Lee’s office said.
The Disaster Relief Grants (DRG) Fund allocates $240 million “to bolster Tennessee’s existing disaster relief fund, as well as reduce the local cost-share burden from 12.5% to 5% and fund the state match requirement in order to access federal funds and cover administrative costs.” Lee’s package also establishes the Hurricane Helene Interest Payment Fund, which allocates $110 million to “help local governments manage loan interest for recovery costs by covering interest costs at 5% per year for three years on loans for recovery expenses.”
Finally, the Governor’s Response and Recovery Fund allocates $100 million “to create a new program inspired by 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 for the rebuilding of Hampton High School in Carter County, which was destroyed in Hurricane Helene.
