Southeast
Tennessee governor backs Trump plan to nix Department of Education, sees bellwether on new school choice bill
Gov unveils new school choice proposal
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee outlines a new school choice proposal and says he supports President-elect Trump possibly dismantling the U.S. Department of Education.
Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee 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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Gov. Bill Lee discusses the devastation from Hurricane Helene at the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency on Oct. 2, 2024, in Nashville. (Mark Zaleski/The Tennessean/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
“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 said. “One thing is very evident about what happened last week. And President Trump is very clear about what his policies are, and Americans were very clear about their acceptance of those policies last week. They, with a strong mandate, said we like what we hear. We want him to execute on those things and that President Trump has a significant understanding and a clear understanding and is the leader, frankly, on the issue of school choice. All of those things benefit us as we move into this next session.”
Lee’s new school choice bill, titled the Education Freedom Act of 2025, was jointly introduced to the state House and Senate on Wednesday.
Drawing from funding already approved by the state legislature, the bill would 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.
Democrats have painted school choice as disenfranchising low-income students, but Lee said he feels the opposite.
“Every kid is unique. Every kid has different learning styles. Every kid has a different life situation. And every family ought to have the opportunity to choose the best path for their kid,” the governor said. “In particular, I don’t think that only the wealthy families that can afford a private option, that those families should be the only ones and those children should be the only ones that have that option for choice.”
President-elect Trump has been shaping up his Cabinet nominations. (Jabin Botsford/Washington Post via Getty Images)
“Oftentimes, opponents will say that school choice initiatives hurt public schools. I think that’s just the opposite,” Lee said. “This legislation that we’re actually bringing forth is an education policy initiative. It’s not just an Education Freedom Scholarship bill. It includes historic funding for public schools, bonuses for teachers, for public school teachers. We will include alongside with this legislation a teacher pay raise plan that will put us in the top 15 states for teacher pay raise in the country.”
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Lee noted that about 30 states already have school choice, 12 of which have universal school choice, and several of those states have passed their initiatives in recent years.
“Americans are in growing numbers, and now the majority of Americans, as evidenced by the past elections, have come to believe that school choice is the way of the future,” Lee said. “It is the answer to challenging the status quo. It is the way that we take America’s rankings and educational outcomes that used to be the top in the world from way down the list as it relates to other countries back up into the outcomes that we hope for this country.”
“This is a way to challenge and change and bring innovation into an education system that’s grown stale and bloated and bureaucratic,” Lee said. “And we see it happening all across America. We believe it’s going to happen in Tennessee. It is an incredibly important moment in our country for parental rights and for the future of children and their education.”
Lee said his schooling growing up in Tennessee happened before the U.S. Department of Education was established in 1979.
“We knew how to do it then. We know how to do it now,” Lee said, explaining that Tennessee created a funding formula that “uniquely recognizes the needs of children with disabilities, with dyslexia and with English as a second language. “We know how to fund education for Tennessee children. We know much better than they do in a bureaucratic institution like the federal Department of Education. I think President Trump is exactly right. I think it’s a great idea.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee looks at a section of Interstate 26 over the Nolichucky River that collapsed during a flood in Erwin on Oct. 1, 2024. (Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
“As a governor, I would welcome the partnership with President Trump in allowing states to choose and determine how best to spend education dollars for their kids,” he added.
If Trump goes through with eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, experts expect the process could take several years.
With Cabinet nominations underway, Fox News Digital asked Lee who he would like to see as Trump’s education secretary and if the governor would consider throwing his own name in the running.
“What I will say is and what I hope is that whoever takes this job is looking to work themselves out of a job,” Lee said. “It will take the right kind of leader who really understands, and I think, who really understands how states can function and how problematic for states federal bureaucracies are. Governors understand that. There are a lot of folks who would be well-qualified for this, but the next person needs to be hoping to work themselves out of a job.”
On the heels of the devastation brought by Hurricane Helene, the governor said the new school choice bill would also commit state dollars from its sports gambling revenue to the construction and maintenance of public school facilities. The bill also offers $2,000 one-time bonuses to every teacher in the state and promises supplemental funding for school districts affected by enrollment drops.
“We can have the best public schools in America,” Lee said. “We can commit the right amount of finances and the right amount of focus. We can strengthen and support our public schools in unprecedented ways and provide freedom and opportunity for parents and choice. At the same time, those are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they shouldn’t be. We should improve every educational opportunity for every kid in our state and will do so through this legislation.”
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Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo that she would “seriously consider” serving in the U.S. Senate if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis asks her to fill the vacancy that will arise when Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., resigns to serve as secretary of state.
She told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that she “would love to serve the people of Florida” and “would love to consider” filling the seat if asked.
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Rubio to fill the Cabinet-level role, and if Rubio is confirmed by his colleagues and resigns from the Senate, DeSantis will have the opportunity to select a temporary replacement to fill the seat until a special election is held.
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Former President Donald Trump and Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump look on during the fourth day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 18, 2024 in Milwaukee. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on “Hannity” that he “would be like over-the-top excited” and that Republicans “could not do better … than Lara Trump.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who served as the Sunshine State’s governor prior to DeSantis, said he hopes DeSantis chooses Lara Trump, according to Axios.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holds a press conference to speak in opposition to Amendment 4, which would limit government interference with abortion in Florida at The Grove Bible Chapel in Winter Garden, Florida. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In a post on X, he declared that she “would be a GREAT Senator and represent Floridians well!”
Republicans won the Senate and House majorities during the 2024 elections.
Rubio has served in the Senate since 2011.
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“As Secretary of State, I will work every day to carry out his foreign policy agenda,” the senator said in a post on X, referring to Trump.
“Under the leadership of President Trump we will deliver peace through strength and always put the interests of Americans and America above all else. I look forward to earning the support of my colleagues in the U.S. Senate so the President has his national security and foreign policy team in place when he takes office on January 20,” he noted.
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Southeast
'Political prosecutions': Republican AGs demand end to 'lawfare' prosecutions of President-elect Trump
Republican attorneys general are putting President-elect Donald Trump’s prosecutors on notice, urging them to halt “political prosecutions of the incoming president.”
“The cases brought against President Trump, particularly the criminal prosecutions, had nothing to do with crime,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird told Fox News Digital in an interview this week.
“They had everything to do with the fact that he was running for president again. He is innocent. He didn’t do anything wrong, and those cases never should have been brought in the first place. That was another way they were trying to wage campaign lawfare.”
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Iowa attorney general Brenna Bird speaks during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 16, 2024. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
Bird, alongside more than 20 other attorneys general, sent a letter to Special Counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, calling on them to drop their cases to avoid the risk of a “constitutional crisis.”
Attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia signed onto the letter.
“Mr. Smith, a federal court has already dismissed your claims in one case due to your improper appointment,” the AGs wrote in the letter. “That appointment flouts both the Appointments Clause and Article II of the U.S. Constitution. Not only that, your prosecutions of President Trump—President Biden and Vice President Harris’s political rival—violated multiple Department of Justice policies.”
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Then-Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, in Mint Hill, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
“President of the United States is the most important job in the world,” they wrote. “The President leads the free world. And America just gave President Trump a mandate to lead the United States to a brighter future. Prosecutions aimed at “self-promotion” are at no time appropriate.”
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it is seeking to wind down two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his second term.
Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts in June 2023 on charges stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Trump was indicted in Georgia in August 2023 after a yearslong criminal investigation led by state prosecutors into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis holds a press conference in the Fulton County Government Center after a grand jury voted to indict former President Donald Trump and 18 others in Atlanta, Georgia on August 14, 2023. (Christian Monterrosa/AFP via Getty Images)
In early 2023, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six of the charges against Trump, saying that District Attorney Fani Willis had failed to allege sufficient detail. The situation was then thrown into disarray when it was revealed that Willis had reportedly had an “improper affair” with Nathan Wade, a prosecutor she had hired to help bring the case against Trump. Wade was later removed.
About three months into taking office, James announced an investigation into the Trump Organization, claiming there was evidence indicating that the president and his company had falsely valued assets to obtain loans, insurance coverage and tax deductions. The investigation was launched after Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who had previously served federal prison time for violating campaign finance laws, testified before Congress that the Trump Organization had exaggerated the value of assets.
Fox News Digital’s Haley Chi-Sing and Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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Southeast
Laken Riley murder trial: Witnesses describe jacket found in dumpster, cup with alcohol smell
WARNING: GRAPHIC
ATHENS, Ga. – Jose Ibarra, the suspect charged in Augusta University student Laken Riley’s February murder on the University of Georgia campus, appeared in court Friday for the start of his trial.
Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, allegedly attacked and killed Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, while she was jogging along trails near Lake Herrick on UGA’s campus the morning of Feb. 22.
Two security guards escorted Ibarra into the Athens-Clarke County courtroom around 7:30 a.m. Friday, about an hour and a half before the start of the trial at 9 a.m., wearing a blue plaid shirt and gray dress pants with shackles around his wrists.
Just before the start of the trial, approximately 20 members of Riley’s family entered the courtroom wearing solemn expressions.
WATCH: Hear Laken Riley’s 911 phone call played in courtroom
“[H]e went hunting for females on the University of Georgia campus.”
“On Feb. 22, Jose Ibarra put on a black hat, a hoodie-style jacket, and some black kitchen-style disposable gloves, and he went hunting for females on the University of Georgia campus,” prosecutor Sheila Ross said in her opening statement Friday. Riley’s sister teared up upon hearing Ross’ first statements.
Jose Ibarra, accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, listens through an interpreter as he sits with his attorney Dustin Kirby left, during his trial at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Ross said Ibarra then encountered Riley on her typical morning run and attacked her.
“When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her head in with a rock repeatedly,” Ross said.
Prosecutor Sheila Ross speaks in front of Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard during a trial of Jose Ibarra, accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
The suspect is charged with 10 counts total, including one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, one count of kidnapping, one count of aggravated assault with intent to rape, one count of aggravated battery, one count of hindering a 911 call, one count of tampering with evidence and one count of being a “peeping Tom.” Ibarra has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
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Laken Riley poses for a photo posted to Facebook. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on Thursday, February 22, 2024. (Allyson Phillips/Facebook)
On Tuesday, Judge Patrick Haggard granted Ibarra’s request for a bench trial over a jury trial, meaning evidence will be presented in court only to Haggard rather than before a selected jury.
Ibarra and his brothers, also in the United States illegally from Venezuela, lived in an apartment building less than a half mile from the on-campus park where Riley was running.
Jose Ibarra, accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, listens through an interpreter during his trial at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
The defendant’s attorney, Dustin Kirby, argued in his opening statement that evidence would not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ibarra killed Riley. He said it would take “gymnastics” for the prosecution to argue that Ibarra killed Riley with what he described as “circumstantial evidence.”
“[T]here should not be enough evidence to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Ibarra is guilty of the crimes charged.”
Prosecutor Sheila Ross holds clothing Laken Riley wore as GBI Crime Scene Specialist Daniella Stuart, right, testifies on the witness stand during the trial of Jose Ibarra, accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Athens. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
“We waived a jury trial in this case, with the hope and trust that despite the nature of this evidence that you could come to a verdict that was not just a way of of easing this family’s suffering, but it was based on an impartial and honest assessment of the evidence in this case,” he said. “If that happens, and the presumption of innocence is respected, there should not be enough evidence to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Ibarra is guilty of the crimes charged.”
LAKEN RILEY MURDER: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT IN GEORGIA COLLEGE STUDENT SLAYING ASKS TO HIDE CERTAIN EVIDENCE
Laken Riley smiles for a photo while running. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on Feb. 22, 2024. (Laken Riley/Instagram)
Ibarra allegedly murdered the aspiring nurse in what UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark described as a “crime of opportunity.”
Riley left home for her morning run at 9:03 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 22. By 9:11 a.m., Ross said, Riley called 911, which dispatch answered, but there was no response from Riley.
The 911 call was played aloud in court Friday. The call was mostly silent, with a dispatch operator saying, “Clarke County 911, can anyone hear me?” but no voices could be heard responding. The only sounds over the course of the seconds-long call were birds chirping and a quiet noise toward the end of the call.
A memorial for Laken Riley is seen along Lake Herrick on the University of Georgia’s campus in Athens, Georgia, on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was found dead on a nearby trail earlier this week. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
Riley’s roommates noticed she had not returned from her run, and they went to search for her around at 11:31 a.m. At 11:46, they found one of Riley’s AirPods on the ground near her usual running path and her last known location, which they knew by using the “Find My Friends” iPhone app.
Riley’s roommate, Sofia Magana, testified that she had taken a photo of the area where she picked up Riley’s AirPod when she and their other roommate, Lilly Steiner, went out to look for her along the trails near her last known location on the morning of Feb. 22. The two students reported her missing to UGA campus police shortly after noon that day.
Jose Ibarra was arrested on Feb. 23 in connection with Laken Riley’s Feb. 22 murder in Athens, Georgia. (Clarke County Sheriff’s Office)
The prosecution played the call aloud in court while hearing testimony from Riley’s roommate, Lilly Steiner.
“Our roommate went out for a run at 9 . . . and we haven’t heard from her,” Steiner can be heard saying during the call. “We went to where her last known location was, and all we found is an AirPod.”
Athens-Clarke County police officer Zachary Davis points out the jacket he collected from a dumpster on photograph as he testifies on the witness stand during a trial of Jose Ibarra, accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
At 12:37, UGA PD Sgt. Kenneth Maxwell found Laken unconscious and not breathing. She was partially naked and covered in leaves. Authorities also noticed severe injuries to the side of her head, and prosecutors believe Riley’s body had been moved after her death; investigators located her body in a wooded area approximately 50 feet from the main running trail.
WATCH: UGA POLICE BODYCAM PLAYED DURING TRIAL
Maxwell’s police bodycam footage from the moment he found Riley’s body was played in court, and Judge Haggard gave those present in the courtroom the opportunity to leave. Riley’s mother departed the courtroom while her stepfather, father and sister remained seated.
The footage showed Sgt. Maxwell locating Riley, whose head was covered in leaves, and attempting to perform CPR on her. Maxwell says in the bodycam video that it appeared as through Riley had been attacked. Multiple members of Riley’s family cried quietly in court as the footage was played, as Ibarra repeatedly looked at and away from the video.
“At that point, I suspected this wasn’t an accident, based on the circumstances,” Maxwell testified.
Allyson Phillips, left, mother of Laken Riley, cries as John Phillips, stepfather of Laken Riley, comforts her during Ibarra’s trial at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Special Agent Daniella Stuart, the state’s sixth witness on Friday, said she had analyzed and photographed the crime scene around 2 p.m. on Feb. 22. The graphic photographs displayed in court showed Riley’s injured torso and head. Riley’s family was not present in the courtroom during Stuart’s testimony.
“Some kind of significant disturbance happened in that area,” Stuart testified while describing blood stains and hair on a rock near the area where officials had discovered Riley’s body.
The special agent confirmed that she had observed a latent print on the bottom of Riley’s iPhone, near the area where someone would hang up a call using their finger.
Jose Ibarra, accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, listens through an interpreter as he sits with his attorneys Dustin Kirby, second left, and Kaitlyn Beck, left, during his trial at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Investigators with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, UGA and the FBI immediately began searching for suspects. On the evening of Feb. 22, investigators with all involved entities went “dumpster diving” around the area where RIley had been killed, searching for evidence, Ross said.
The prosecutor described their findings that night as “a combination of good police work and luck.”
At a dumpster near the apartment complex where Ibarra lived, an officer found a “suspicious” dark sweatshirt with hair and blood on it. Authorities immediately submitted the sweatshirt to a lab for testing.
Officer Zachary Davis, the state’s seventh witness to testify Friday, said he had been checking dumpsters at apartment complexes around the UGA trails where Riley had been found. In one dumpster, he noticed the dark sweatshirt and then physically went into the dumpster, which had been labeled as strictly for recyclable items, to get a better look at the article just before 10 p.m. on Feb. 22. Davis’ police-worn bodycam footage shows him locating the item and putting it in an evidence bag.
Jose Ibarra appears in court for a pretrial evidence hearing in Athens, Ga., on Nov. 1, 2024. (Robin Rayne for Fox News Digital)
“There’s hair on the buttons, ripped up sleeves,” Davis can be heard telling his fellow officers. He can then be heard asking them, “Was she a brunette?”
An apartment nearby had a doorbell video camera with a view of the dumpster, and around 9:40 a.m. on Feb. 22, the camera captured a man disposing of something in the dumpster. A woman living in Ibarra’s apartment, Rosbeli Flores-Bello, would later identify the man in the video as Ibarra.
Investigators would later test the recovered jacket for DNA evidence and find a combination of both Jose Ibarra’s and Riley’s DNA on the items.
Investigators would also find Ibarra’s DNA beneath Riley’s fingernails, Ross said. The suspect had bruising and scratches throughout his body at the time of his arrest, according to Ross and Special Agent Stuart, who photographed his injuries.
Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard listens during a trial of Jose Ibarra, accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Athens, Ga.
The peeping Tom charge stems from another Feb. 22 incident in which the suspect allegedly went to a residence on UGA’s campus in Athens and “peeped through” a window and “spied upon” a university staff member, according to the indictment.
Ross said a male individual had been captured on video camera footage trying to open a UGA graduate student’s door around 7 a.m. on the same morning that Riley was killed. Evidence showed that the individual haad gone to the student’s door “six times” and peeped through the student’s open windows, Ross said in her opening statement. The student called 911 at 7:57 a.m. that morning and reported hearing someone trying to “break into” her apartment.
Jose Ibarra appears in court for a pre-trial evidence hearing in Athens, Georgia on Friday, November 1, 2024. Ibarra is on trial for the death of University of Georgia student Laken Riley in February. (Robin Rayne for Fox News Digital)
Prior to the peeping Tom incident, an individual matching the suspect’s description appeared on surveillance video footage holding a white cup, Ross said in her opening statement. UGA PD Lt. Daniel Saunders, the state’s eighth witness, testified on Friday afternoon that he had located a white cup near a large rock by the crime scene containing contents that smelled of alcohol.
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Ibarra illegally crossed into the United States through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. via parole, ICE and DHS sources previously told Fox News.
The area where Laken Riley’s body was found near Lake Herrick on the University of Georgia’s campus in Athens, Georgia, on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Jose Antonio Ibarra has been charged with the murder of Riley. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
His older brother, Diego Ibarra, who worked briefly in a UGA cafeteria before his arrest in February, is charged with green card fraud and had ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the U.S. called Tren de Aragua, according to federal court documents.
ICE previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that Jose Ibarra had been arrested by the New York Police Department a year after he entered the U.S. in August 2023 and had been “charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.”
Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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