Texas Democrats accuse comptroller of excluding Islamic schools from voucher program

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Democrats are claiming acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock is acting outside the scope of the Texas Education Freedom Accounts, or school voucher, law and excluding schools based on religious identity.

In a letter sent Thursday and signed by Democrats in the Texas House and Senate, lawmakers questioned the methods used to exclude Islamic private schools from the TEFA program.

What they're saying:

"The current delay or exclusion of these institutions raises profound concerns, increases legal liability for our state, and imposes an unfair burden to Muslim Texans," the letter from lawmakers reads.

Hancock had previously asked Attorney General Ken Paxton for a legal opinion on the agency's authority to determine the eligibility of certain private schools in the program.

In Paxton's opinion, he wrote that schools can be excluded if they violate the "other relevant laws" provision of Senate Bill 2, which established the TEFA program.

Paxton's opinion came in response to Hancock's question over whether schools that had hosted events for the Council on American-Islamic Relations or had alleged ties to the Chinese government could be banned from the program.

Governor Greg Abbott designated CAIR as a terrorist organization in November. The group has since filed a lawsuit claiming the proclamation is based on "defamatory" and "provably false statements."

Lawmakers said multiple Islamic schools have been denied or removed from TEFA eligibility "despite having no affiliation with CAIR or any designated organization cited in generalized alligations."

"Some schools have publicly reported that they were initially approved and later removed without clear, school-specific notice or articulated factual findings," they said.

"The Attorney General's response did not authorize blanket exclusions," Senate Democrats said in their letter. "Instead, it made it clear that your office has sole authority to make the factual eligibility determinations under the statute."

"We didn't support the voucher program. But since it's here, the state has to follow the law," the Senate Democratic Caucus said on X. "We can't twist the rules to exclude any ethnic or religious group."

Lawmakers are calling on Hancock to implement the program in a way that's "neutral, transparent and consistent with the law."

They said decisions made based on "religion-linked proxies" and "guilt-by-association reasoning" open the state up to violations of equal protection principles, Texas constitutional protections of religious liberty and due process requirements.

"Administrative agencies must operate within the four corners of the statute enacted by the Legislature, not beyond it," Senate Democrats said.

Attorney General Ken Paxton says Comptroller's Office can exclude schools from TEFA

The other side:

Hancock asked the attorney general to weigh in on who could determine if a school is excluded from the TEFA program.

"The people of Texas deserve the highest assurance that no taxpayer dollars will be used, directly or indirectly, to support institutions with ties to a foreign terrorist organization, a transnational criminal network, or any adversarial foreign government," the request said.

In January, Paxton issued an opinion stating the Comptroller's Office has the full authority to prohibit schools under the "other relevant law[s]" provision of Senate Bill 2.

"Let me be crystal clear: Texans’ tax dollars should never fund Islamic terrorists or America’s enemies," Paxton said of the opinion. "The Comptroller’s Office has always possessed exclusive authority under the TEFA framework to stop any school illegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries from accessing taxpayer dollars, and this opinion affirms that authority. There is no question that the Comptroller’s Office is statutorily charged with ensuring that our school choice program is protected from abuse by terrorists or the Chinese Communist Party."

While the attorney general's opinions are not legally binding, they are used as guidance by state agencies.

School choice in Texas

The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 2 in April, carving out $1 billion for the program in its first year.

Most parents who qualify can receive up to nearly $10,500 each year in public money for their child to go to private school.

The program will be capped at 90,000 students statewide. The education savings accounts will be given on a priority scale, so lower-income households and students with special needs will get priority first for the funds. 

Applications for students opened on Feb. 4. According to the Comptroller's Office, more than 100,000 students applied in the first two weeks.

The deadline to apply to the program is March 17.