Gov. Bill Lee wants Tennessee to be a pro-family state.
With that objective, while overseeing a state government flush with cash, the Republican governor this year has put hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money where his mouth is.
But there is something a state revenue surplus can't buy: People willing to take in the hundreds of children in Tennessee who have been removed from their homes and are in need of families.
Lee's executive departments can’t offer traumatized children an equal substitute for someone opening their home. The state alone cannot replicate a stable, loving family for children in need of a permanent place to live.