The demand for Texas’ first-ever school voucher program has received more than 274,000 applications, according to data from the Texas Comptroller’s Office, since its deadline on March 31.
Families have applied for the Texas Education Freedom Accounts, funded at $1 billion and expected to serve roughly 90,000 students through a lottery system, or less than half of those who applied.
“Texas didn’t just meet expectations, we set the national record for year-one demand in a school choice program. Families across Texas made it clear they want a greater role in their child’s education, and they showed up in record numbers,” Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock said.
The surge in applications signals strong interest from families seeking alternatives to public education, particularly private schools and early childhood programs.
The Comptroller’s office released a breakdown of the application pool, which shows:
- 43,000 students applied on the program’s first day
- Nearly 75% of applicants are from low- or middle-income Texas families
- Nearly 30,000 applicants qualify for the first priority tier, including low- or middle-income students with disabilities
- Another 79,000 applicants qualify for the second priority tier, or students in low-income households
Large urban districts are seeing the highest number of applications, including more than 11,000 applicants in Houston ISD and over 7,100 in Fort Bend ISD.
However, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD reported only a small percentage of applications, with just over 5,000 applications out of 118,000 students.
According to data from the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency (TXCVT), as of March 4, 60,605 (out of 5.5 million students) Texas public and charter school families had submitted applications for the state’s voucher program, meaning approximately 1% of public school families in Texas have applied.
Moreover, nearly 50% of voucher applications indicate white students, and 75% come from families not enrolled in public schools, including private school students, homeschooled students, and students never enrolled in school.
“Texans are sharing concerns about how this voucher program is being implemented, and these experiences need to be documented to identify statewide patterns.”
– Dee Carney, Director of the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency
“Texans are sharing concerns about how this voucher program is being implemented, and these experiences need to be documented to identify statewide patterns,” said Dee Carney, Director of the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency. “Parents have reported difficulties navigating the special education process, some private schools are choosing not to participate because of concerns with the program, and we’ve even seen the first legal challenge alleging religious discrimination. Yet instead of addressing these substantive issues, the Comptroller continues to highlight application totals without publicly providing answers to other critical questions that taxpayers have asked about Texas’ new voucher program.”
Using data from OSOD’s new School Locator Map, the Houston Defender has created a table of private schools in Harris County:
Carney added that currently, there is no demographic data for any of the private school campuses.
