The Tennessee Supreme Court will consider whether the state’s school voucher law is constitutional, after two lower courts sided against the law. The five-member panel accepted the appeal on Thursday.
Implementation of the private school vouchers has been stalled since the program’s passage in 2019.
Metro Schools in Nashville argues the law unfairly targets the state’s two largest urban areas, since the vouchers won’t be offered elsewhere. Officials in Nashville and Memphis didn’t want the vouchers over concerns they damage public school funding.
A lower court and an appeals court both sided with the urban school districts. Last May, the state supreme court refused to have an expedited hearing that would have bypassed the appeals court.
Vouchers have been a top priority of Gov. Bill Lee, though they passed the Republican-controlled Tennessee House of Representatives by a narrow margin.
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