Election Year Politics Cloud Texas Voucher Rollout

Texas’ long-awaited school choice expansion is moving forward but its first year is already colliding with legal uncertainty and election-year politics that could sharply limit how much real “choice” families actually have.

As applications prepare to open for Texas’ new Education Freedom Account voucher program, hundreds of private schools across the state are currently barred from participating, leaving families and school administrators waiting on a legal opinion that now sits with the state’s attorney general.

How the Voucher Program Works and How Big It Is

In 2025, Texas lawmakers approved one of the largest school choice initiatives in the country, creating Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs) that allow eligible families to use public funds for private education expenses.

Key details of the program include:

• Voucher amount: approximately $10,000 per student per year

• Eligible uses: private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, and instructional materials

• Annual funding: roughly $1 billion

Because participation is capped by funding, the first-year rollout is limited to approximately 90,000 to 100,000 students statewide, or about 1–2 percent of Texas’ K–12 population, which exceeds 5.5 million students.

If applications exceed available slots, priority is given to lower-income students and students with special needs, with remaining positions filled through a lottery system.

Source: Texas Legislature budget documents; Texas Comptroller program materials

🔗 https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/education-savings-accounts-texas/

🔗 https://comptroller.texas.gov/education/efa/

Which Schools Are Being Shut Out and Why

This dispute does not involve charter schools, which are public schools and are not eligible for vouchers.

The schools currently frozen out are private schools accredited by Cognia, one of the largest private-school accrediting organizations in the United States. Cognia accredits a wide range of schools, including:

• Secular private schools

• College-preparatory and classical academies

• Independent community schools

• Some faith-based schools, including Christian, Jewish, and Muslim schools

These schools are not being excluded for academic performance, finances, or compliance issues.

Instead, the Texas Comptroller’s Office has paused approvals while seeking a legal opinion on whether Cognia-accredited schools meet eligibility requirements under the statute. By contrast, many private schools accredited by smaller or explicitly faith-based accrediting bodies  particularly evangelical Christian schools have already been allowed to proceed.

Source: Houston Chronicle reporting

The Attorney General and the Political Clock

The unresolved question now sits with Ken Paxton, whose office will issue the formal legal opinion determining whether Cognia-accredited schools can participate.

State officials have indicated the opinion could come as late as March, but no firm deadline has been announced.

That timing is politically significant. Texas’ Republican primary election is scheduled for March 3, 2026, and Paxton is currently running for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate against John Cornyn, a three-term incumbent who has served in the Senate since 2003.

Recent public polling shows Paxton leading Cornyn among Republican primary voters, making the attorney general the early front-runner in the race. While Paxton has not publicly tied the voucher dispute to his campaign, his office alone controls the decision now holding up hundreds of private schools.

Sources: Texas Secretary of State; public polling summaries

Families Left Waiting

Voucher applications for families are scheduled to open February 4, 2026, even as school eligibility remains unresolved. That raises the possibility that families could be approved for vouchers before knowing whether their preferred schools can accept them, complicating enrollment and financial planning during the critical spring decision window.

The Bottom Line

Texas’ voucher program represents a major conservative policy victory years in the making. But its first year now risks being shaped less by parental demand and more by bureaucratic delay and election-year politics.

Until the Attorney General’s opinion is issued, hundreds of private schools — and tens of thousands of Texas families remain on the sidelines, waiting to see how much school choice the state will actually deliver.