MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The Wisconsin Supreme Court decided Friday it will hear arguments in a lawsuit pitting Republican lawmakers against Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), bypassing a lower appeals court.

The case stems from a new law overhauling how public schools teach children how to read. The law includes $50 million to help school districts train teachers and pay for new lesson plans.

However, nearly all of that money has been held up while the case plays out, and some school districts, including Greendale, have had to borrow money to pay for the new curriculum they bought while expecting reimbursement from the state.

The GOP-held Legislature is suing Evers over his use of the partial veto when signing the bill into law. Lawmakers argue Evers abused that power to shift power over how the $50 million is spent away from the Legislature and to the DPI.

Evers and state education officials have called on lawmakers to release the money while the courts handle the case.

The case originated in Dane County, but is now on a fast track to the state's highest court after Friday's decision. The court's four liberal members were joined by conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn in granting the motion to bypass the appeals court.

Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote a dissent, which Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, a fellow conservative, joined.

"Process matters," Bradley wrote. "The members of the majority sometimes enforce a rule against “premature petitions” but sometimes they don’t, without disclosing any standards by which they will choose whether to apply it."