Court declines to rehear school voucher case

The Tennessee Supreme Court has declined to rehear a case challenging the constitutionality of Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher program.

Davidson and Shelby county governments filed a petition asking the court to rehear the case following its May 18 ruling that found the program does not violate the state constitution’s home rule provision by only applying to districts in those counties — a major win for Lee.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper argued the court did not consider that Metro Nashville Public Schools — as the school system for both Nashville and Davidson County — is part of a metropolitan form of government.

“In the state’s Supreme Court ruling, the court … does not consider MNPS to be the school system for both Nashville and Davidson County,” Cooper said during a May 31 news conference. “(It states) MNPS is somehow not part of Metro government, and not part of Metro government’s direct financial responsibility. Now we just know that’s not the case.”

In an order issued Monday, the court said it had thoroughly reviewed the petition.

“The Court previously considered the issues raised in the petition in the course of its resolution of the appeal,” the court said in its one-paragraph order. “The petition, therefore, is respectfully denied.”

The Mayor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Tennessean on Monday.

Under the education savings account program, eligible students could choose to take public money for their education and apply it to private school tuition instead.

But only some students — specifically those in Metro Nashville and Shelby County public school districts — are part of the three-year pilot program approved narrowly by the

Tennessee General Assembly in 2019.

The county governments immediately challenged the law, arguing it violated the “home rule” provision of the Tennessee Constitution since it was narrowly tailored to their jurisdictions without their consent.

State officials disagreed and argued that education policy is the state’s responsibility. As a result, they made the case that the local constitutional protections don’t apply in this case.

In the 3-2 ruling last month, the state’s highest court agreed with the Lee administration.

The court’s recent ruling sent the case back to the trial court to resolve whether the program violates the constitutional equal protection clause and public school students’ rights to adequate and equitable educational opportunities.

It also lifted an injunction blocking the state from moving ahead with the program, Samantha Fisher, spokesperson for Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, told The Associated Press last month.

The Tennessee Department of Education has not been given a “go or no go” from the Attorney General’s Office yet though, Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn told the Tennessean last week.

The department is statutorily required to implement the program, the department and the Governor’s Office have not hinted at a timeline for doing so yet.

“A lot of parents are waiting for that information, and I can imagine that it’s frustrating for everybody involved,” Schwinn said. “But we certainly want to make sure that we are being respectful of that (legal) process. We will fulfill the statutory responsibility when and if that injunction lifts in the future.”

Neither the Governor’s Office nor the education department immediately responded to questions from the Tennessean Monday.

“A lot of parents are waiting for that information, and I can imagine that it’s frustrating for everybody involved. But we certainly want to make sure that we are being respectful of that (legal) process.”

— EDUCATION COMMISSIONER PENNY SCHWINN