In addition to being the first day of school in Tennessee, today kicks off the first school year when hundreds of families are able to send their children to their school of choice in the state, even if it’s not a public one.

On Friday, Tennessee’s new school choice program cleared a legal hurdle that has blocked its implementation for two years. A judge denied injunctive relief to the cities of Nashville and Memphis, which had sought to halt the pilot program, allowing it to move forward.

The program faces a second legal challenge, but will be allowed to continue while that one plays out in court. 

More than 2,000 students have enrolled in the new education savings account program since a two-year injunction was lifted in July. Students in low- and middle-income families are eligible for more than $7,000 to put toward education programs outside the public school system.

In its initial phase, the program is launching at the Volunteer State’s two biggest cities, which are both liberal strongholds in an otherwise conservative state.

The cities fought the program and the state’s Republican leadership in court. For the past two years, their attempts to halt the program have been successful.

Memphis and Nashville first sued the state in 2020, arguing that the program violated the Home Rule Amendment of the state constitution. The program, they argued, gave the state legislature unconstitutional control over the cities’ school systems.

Lower courts ruled in favor of the cities and enjoined the program — halting it for two years.

In July, however, the state supreme court ruled that the program did not violate the Home Rule Amendment and overturned the injunction.

As a last-ditch effort, the cities filed for an injunction again in late July. The counties argued that the program “unconstitutionally imposes a school voucher-type program in only two Tennessee school districts — at the financial expense of the counties that fund them and at the educational expense of the districts and the students that remain in them.”

On Friday, a panel of trial judges ruled against the cities and denied their request.

“The Plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that the extraordinary remedy of an injunction is warranted,” the court, consisting of Judges Anne Martin, Tammy Harrington, and Valerie Smith, ruled.

“Specifically, we are unpersuaded that the harm the Plaintiffs believe to be imminent is sufficiently irreparable or certain so as to justify blocking the implementation of a duly enacted statute of this state at this stage of the litigation,” the judges wrote in the ruling.

The program will be in effect when the parties return to court on September 19.

While the state supreme court has ruled that the program does not violate the Home Rule Amendment, a second complaint has been filed arguing that the program violates the “equal protection” clause of the state constitution. That complaint must be litigated.