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Texas extends school voucher application deadline
A federal judge extended the Texas school voucher application deadline to March 31 following a lawsuit alleging religious discrimination. FOX 4's Steven Dial spoke to people involved in the lawsuit.
DALLAS - More than 2,000 schools across the state are now eligible for the $1 billion voucher program that uses public money to pay for private schools. But two Muslim schools in North Texas argued they were unfairly shut out of the process.
They are part of the legal case that forced the state of Texas to extend the deadline for parents wanting to apply.
Texas school voucher lawsuit
What we know:
The deadline to apply for Texas’ voucher program was set for Tuesday night.
A federal judge extended that deadline to March 31 after four Muslim parents and three private schools sued.
The lawsuit includes Excellence Academy in McKinney and Brighter Horizons Academy in Garland. The two Islamic schools believe they were unfairly discriminated against in the state’s approval process.
Judge orders Texas to extend deadline on school voucher program
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the extension of the application deadline for Texas' school voucher program because of the state's exclusion of Islamic schools.
What they're saying:
"Their first explanation was that there was an administrative backlog. And it had just so happened that every Islamic school was in the backlog. And they had approved 2,000 plus schools to be on the list and had just not gotten to the 30 Islamic schools that are now still pending or were pending," said Maha Ghyas with Wright Close Barger & Guzman LLP, one of the law firms representing the families and Islamic schools.
"There were literally no Islamic schools approved to be on the list, and that was skewing who’s even on the parent side applying for the vouchers," added Ayesha Najam, another lawyer with Gibbs & Bruns LLP.
Texas Islamic schools sue comptroller over exclusion from voucher program
Three private schools are suing the Texas leaders in charge of overseeing the state's school voucher program for excluding Islamic schools from being a part of the program.
The other side:
The state said it is closely reviewing schools accredited by the company Cognia, claiming it has hosted events organized by the Council on American Islamic Relations. Gov. Greg Abbott recently labeled the Muslim civil rights group a terrorist group.
"This two-week extension will give families an additional opportunity to apply for the first year of school choice in Texas. We look forward to building on the record-setting demand for educational options that we have seen over the first six weeks," acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock said in a statement.
Big picture view:
Constitutional lawyer David Coale is not associated with the case. He said that while the extension does give parents more time to apply, it does not clear up the question of whether Muslim schools will be approved.
"Both sides are going to have to have another day in court. The comptroller has to come forward and show that it really does have logistical problems. It isn't just leaving out a certain class of schools. And the people that are applying here have got to dot their i’s and cross all their t's. They've got to have good applications. They've got to be legitimate schools and so on and so forth," he said.
By the numbers:
More than 229,000 students have applied for vouchers.
Recently released data showed that more than half of those applicants already attend private school. About a fourth are new students heading into pre-K or kindergarten and the other fourth would be transferring away from a public school.
Over 160,000 Texas students apply for new Texas school voucher program
Many students have applied for the new Texas school voucher program, but some question whether the program will benefit low-income families after seeing early application statistics.
What's next:
Parents will find out if they’ve been approved for the program soon.
Then, the private school still must accept the student before moving forward in the fall.
The Source: FOX 4 reporter Steven Dial gathered information for this story by talking to attorneys representing the schools and families that filed a lawsuit, as well as constitutional lawyer David Coale. Other information comes from the Texas Comptroller's Office and past news coverage.