Texas voucher applications are open. These schools are still left out.

[walkingman]

As of February 2026, Texas has launched its "$1 billion Texas Education Freedom Accounts program," allowing families to use taxpayer-funded vouchers—officially Education Savings Accounts (ESAs)—for private school tuition, including religious institutions. The program allows religious schools to accept these funds for the 2026-27 school year, with over 46,000 applications submitted in the first 24 hours

However, not all religious communities are treated equally in Texas.

Palm Tree Academy in El Paso hoped Texas’ new private school voucher program would boost enrollment and eventually help the community establish a middle school.

The private academy, which has operated for nearly 30 years, is the only full-time school serving El Paso’s small but burgeoning Muslim community, which includes many longstanding Hispanic Muslim families as well as more recent Arab and South Asian immigrants drawn to jobs at local hospitals and universities.

But on Wednesday, as families statewide began applying for the state-funded tuition subsidies, Palm Tree was among nearly two dozen Islamic schools that remained blocked from participating in the $1 billion program.

The state comptroller’s office said it has held up a handful of schools over alleged ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group that Gov. Greg Abbott has deemed a terrorist organization. But the move is affecting schools like Palm Tree that say they have never been in contact with CAIR and still have received no information from the state about why they have not been invited to apply.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/private-school-voucher-islamic-schools-21332095.php

I am totally opposed to the Texas' voucher plan that will divert state dollars from public education into private school tuition. But as long as such a program is enshrined in Texas law, it should be administered fairly, not used as a vehicle for religious or cultural discrimination. ☮

[QED]

1. Vouchers have severely strained Arizona's budget

and led to closure of many schools.

[walkingman]

2. I expect the same thing here....the public schools still have the same

expenses and the enrollment has to decline. This is nothing more that shifting catering to those who send their kids to private schools already (cut their expenses), pushing for the religious vote, and homeschoolers. Sadly they can pick and choose who they accept and a way to go back to historical segregation.

[QED]

3. In my old district, elementary enrollment has declined significantly.

Parents are either homeschooling or sending their kids to charter schools. However, high school enrollment has remained steady. I think once parents realize they need more than they can do at home or a charter doesn't meet their needs, they need public schools after all. Problem is - and I experienced this as a classroom teacher - students are often ill-prepared and need remediation. Not all, but enough to make more work for teachers.