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Thousands of NTX students apply for voucher program
FOX 4's Steven Dial breaks down the North Texas school districts that have applied for the new private school voucher program.
DALLAS - 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.
New data on Texas Education Freedom Account applications
What we know:
With only a week to go before the application window closes, Texas reports that over 160,000 students have applied for a Texas Education Freedom Account, or TEFA.
Data from the Texas Comptroller's office shows that most of the applications are for young students in pre-K, kindergarten or first grade.
One in four of those who applied statewide are currently in public school. Another quarter were students who were too young to attend school during the current school year.
The other half of applicants were already in private school or homeschooled.
Three North Texas schools had the most applicants. Dallas ISD saw over 5,200 students apply, Fort Worth ISD saw over 3,100 applications, and over 2,800 applied in Plano ISD.
How do the TEFA accounts work?
The backstory:
The TEFA program allows parents to remove their students from public school and enroll them in private school using state-funded education savings accounts.
In its first year, the TEFA program will be capped at $1 billion and used by up to 90,000 students. It could grow to nearly $4.5 billion per year by 2030.
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Texas launches Education Freedom Accounts | Battleground Texas
The Texas trio focuses on the launch of the so-called Education Freedom Accounts, the largest school voucher program in the country. Reporter Steven Dial talks to acting Comptroller Kelly Handcock. They also talk to Wesley Hunt about trying to make the Senate runoff.
The amount of money a student can receive depends on their situation. Students with disabilities participating in an Individualized Education Program or certain Pre-K students may be eligible for up to $30,000 annually. All other students may receive up to $2,000 each year.
Students who are accepted into the program and remain in good standing will not need to reapply each year. If there are more applicants than spots available, priority will be given to families based on their adjusted gross income.
‘Welfare for the wealthy'
The other side:
During the legislative process for TEFA, critics called the program ‘welfare for the wealthy’.
Dee Carney, the Director for the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency, says her group has pushed for transparency about where the public money for TEFA is going.
"What we noticed is, regardless of people's positions on vouchers, they were asking for similar things: transparency, accountability, and fairness," Carney told FOX 4's Steven Dial. "There's nothing controversial about making it easier for Texans to see how this $1 billion in a taxpayer-funded program is being used and what results are being delivered.
"Authors of Senate Bill 2 did put in those guardrails to try to prioritize students with certain income levels, students with disabilities, and so those donut charts are going to change once," Carney continued. "A student applies, they go through the tiering process, and then they have to be accepted by a private school. So those donut charts are gonna change."
The Source: Information in this story came from the Texas Comptroller's Office and FOX 4 reporting.