Gov: No timeline yet on school vouchers after court ruling

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Friday that he doesn't have a timeline yet on when his administration might roll out a long-blocked school voucher program that saw its biggest legal roadblock removed by the state's high court this week.

The Republican told reporters that it was a “good first step” for the Supreme Court to rule Wednesday that the voucher initiative doesn't violate the Tennessee Constitution’s “home rule,” which says the Legislature can’t pass measures singling out individual counties without local support. The decision upends earlier court rulings that have kept the program that passed in 2019 from ever being implemented.

The program applies only to Nashville and Shelby County, which includes Memphis, the areas with the lowest performing schools and regions with Democratic political strongholds who opposed the measure. The two counties were among the entities that sued over the program.

But the governor also said there are “legal decisions yet to be made” and “a lot of steps that have to come to fruition” before the program can get up and running.

"Once we determine the speed with which the court will make its final decisions, then we can move forward with the particulars to make sure this works and fits, and how it is that we roll it out,” Lee said.

However, the state isn't blocked in court from moving ahead with the program anymore because the injunction was based on the home rule decision, said Samantha Fisher, spokesperson for Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery. But the attorney general has likewise acknowledged that further court proceedings need to take place, calling the Supreme Court ruling “a major step forward.”

Under the Supreme Court's order, the case now heads back to a lower court to determine other lingering...