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Leader Zachary urges dismantling of U.S. Department of Education; resolution advances out of committee
Summary
Sponsor Leader Zachary told the full education committee that "education belongs to the states" and urged dismantling the U.S. Department of Education; after debate the committee advanced Senate Joint Resolution 650 to calendar rules by a 16–3 count.
Leader Zachary, sponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 650, told the full committee that "the US Department of Education needs to be dismantled" and argued education should be controlled by states and local officials rather than the federal government. He cited inflation-adjusted K–12 spending per pupil since the 1970s and said federal oversight and reporting requirements impose burdens that hamper state flexibility.
Zachary also asked the legislature to urge the governor to establish a task force to prepare Tennessee for an eventual reduction or elimination of the federal Department of Education. "Education is a state and local responsibility," he said, and he pointed to Tennessee's experience with a Medicaid block-grant arrangement and "roughly $330,000,000 in shared savings" as an example of state-level management.
Opponents raised concerns about the practical consequences of the resolution. Regent McKenzie challenged the use of long-term spending comparisons and asked which federal programs would be cut, listing free and reduced-price lunches, Title I, special education, career and technical education and Pell-related programs as areas of potential impact. President Johnson, speaking from decades of special-education experience, warned that federal dollars currently support programs that serve students with disabilities and other underserved groups: "Those federal dollars, which are only a small portion of our education, it's not like as if we're letting the federal government control education, because the only strings attached to those federal dollars is making sure we comply with the Civil Rights Act," he said.
The committee moved the previous question and, per the clerk's tally, recorded "16 ayes and 3 nays." The chair announced that SJR 650 "having received a majority moves out to calendar rules." The resolution is now scheduled for further consideration under the body's calendar rules rather than being decided in this committee.
What happens next: advancing to calendar rules means the resolution may be scheduled for floor consideration or additional committee review under the legislature's calendar process; the resolution also includes a governor-directed task force request that, if enacted later, would set a planning process for shifting program authority and funding streams.
