Republican lawmakers in Texas campaigned for and are now implementing the Lone Star State’s private school voucher program known as the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA). Since February 4, families have been applying for state funds (roughly $10,500 annually) to use for private school tuition or educational expenses starting in the 2026-2027 school year, with up to $30,000 for students with disabilities and $2,000 for homeschoolers.
According to the NBC affiliate Click2 Houston, the state has so far received more than 100,000 applications. The application deadline is March 17.
The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus, which voted against the TEFA, claim Republicans are now trying to “exclude certain entities from participating in the program based on alleged ‘Islamic’ or ‘Chinese’ ties.”
[NOTE: No Islamic private school has received approval for the program, according to Houston Chronicle reports, with participation by dozens of Islamic schools — including Palm Tree Academy (El Paso, TX) and Houston Quran Academy (Houston, TX) — blocked or delayed. Texas also has laws restricting property ownership, investments, and various business activities by foreign adversaries, a group including China, as well as Iran, Russia, and North Korea. Querying Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on the voucher issue, Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock noted the purported ties between some Texas schools and the Chinese government which could render those schools ineligible for the voucher program.]
MAGA-aligned Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization — as a “foreign terrorist organization” under Texas state law, and earlier this month, AG Paxton, who is running for the U.S. Senate, sued the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR “to stop the terrorist groups from operating in Texas.”
We didn’t support the voucher program.
But since it’s here, the state has to follow the law.We can’t twist the rules to exclude any ethnic or religious group. This is yours— own it. Read our letter to the Comptroller below. #txlege pic.twitter.com/QuLO9bzXyf
— Texas Senate Democratic Caucus (@txsenatedem) February 19, 2026
The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus sent a letter to Hancock urging him to “administer the TEFA program in a manner that is neutral, transparent and consistent with the law and to immediately cease discriminatory and exclusionary practices that single out certain communities without lawful justification.”
The Caucus wrote on social media: “We didn’t support the voucher program. But since it’s here, the state has to follow the law. We can’t twist the rules to exclude any ethnic or religious group. This is yours— own it.”