If I had to pick one of the biggest sources of evil today, I would pick the public school system, especially the administrative staff and the teacher unions. Unfortunately, even in red states, it can be hard to fight back. One of the red states that seemed to be very committed to the status quo is Tennessee. But that’s all about to change, and their moderate conservative governor Bill Lee is on board.

Here’s the story from Fox News:

Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is launching an ambitious effort to take school choice statewide on Tuesday, and he’ll have some company for the announcement in Nashville.

With Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in tow, along with supportive legislators and families, Lee is announcing the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, which his office says will “extend school choice to every family across rural and urban Tennessee communities, putting parents at the forefront of their child’s education” and giving them all access to the best school for them. Sanders signed an expansive school choice voucher bill into law for Arkansas in March, calling it a “transformational education plan.”

“When I ran for Governor, I said every Tennessean deserves access to a good job, a great school, and a safe neighborhood,” Lee told Fox News Digital in a statement. “We’ve made great strides in education, but there is more work to do. To ensure Tennessee continues to lead the nation, it’s time for a statewide school choice plan that empowers parents, equips students for success, and allows Tennessee taxpayers to decide how their own dollars are invested.”

Usually, when conservatives want to get rid of welfare or trim down a government monopoly, they try to put the money and the responsibility to decide back in the hands of taxpayers. Leftists don’t trust taxpayers to know how to choose – they want the government to decide. Conservatives trust taxpayers to know what to choose.

And that’s the approach Tennessee is taking:

“The Education Freedom Scholarship Act will empower Tennessee parents with the freedom to pick the right school for their child, while giving families a choice where their taxpayer dollars are spent,” according to a memo obtained by Fox News Digital.

“Universal eligibility” means everyone is going to be included:

The proposal could change during the legislative process, but Lee’s plan calls for 20,000 scholarships to be made available to Tennessee students, including “10,000 scholarships for students who are at or below 300% of the federal poverty level, have a disability, or are eligible for the existing pilot program,” and an additional 10,000 scholarships “available to a universal pool of students entitled to attend a public school,” according to the governor’s office.

They would get a little more than $7,000 in vouchers for the 2024-25 school year, with eligible expenses including private school tuition, fees, and uniforms required by the private school, textbooks, curricula, and instructional materials required by the private school, tutoring services, and computer hardware. By the following school year, the proposal would have “universal eligibility for all Tennessee students entitled to attend a public school, prioritizing currently enrolled students, low-income and public school students if demand exceeds available funding.”

In my opinion, Tennessee is the best state in the union, maybe tied with Florida for first place. If you are a Republican living in some other state, then what’s holding you up from moving to Tennessee or Florida? You don’t have to live in a big city. You just need to make sure that your tax money goes to people who trust you to decide. You just need to make sure that the police and judges are there to serve you. Why would you be content to live in a state that takes the money you earn and spends it, because they don’t trust you?