Four days before students were set to start classes at a Houston-area Christian school, a mom who was awarded vouchers for her dyslexic child was told she’d need to spend an extra $6,000 — out of pocket — for a language therapist.
The mother had already bought uniforms and textbooks and signed her child up for sports. The private school contracts with just one certified language therapist, who isn’t an approved vendor in the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program. The mom was told that if she wants her child to become a stronger reader — the primary reason she opted for private education — she’d have to find the money to pay for the therapist.
The mom, who asked to remain anonymous, worked out an arrangement with the school, the details of which she says she cannot disclose, and her child has been attending classes there since August 13.
She’s disappointed that the program she was so excited about has already fallen short of her expectations, and she’s certain she’s not the only parent who’s feeling discouraged or has been forced to return their kids to a public school that they believe lacks the tools to care for their child’s needs.
More than 20,700 families have declined or returned their state-awarded vouchers during the program’s inaugural year, the Dallas Morning News reported on August 13, citing data from the comptroller’s office that the newspaper obtained through an open records request. About two-thirds of those for whom the program didn’t work out were previously enrolled in public schools, according to the report.
Overall, however, most of the 275,000 Texas families who applied for vouchers never sent their kids to public school, but it’s important to note that those with pre-K or kindergarten students may have never sent their kids to any school. Critics who have said for over a year that the program was always intended to boost private schools may now be saying, “I told you so.”
Dee Carney, director of the Austin-based Texas Center for Voucher Transparency, said the comptroller’s latest data “tells two stories at the same time: Most students using a voucher this year were already in private or home school, while thousands of families who explored a voucher ultimately chose not to use it.”
“It’s precisely what the research from other states shows and what we’ve been stressing,” Carney said. “Eligibility does not mean access.”
The Texas Comptroller’s Office hasn’t publicly acknowledged the large number of families who rejected their vouchers, other than to say in late July that when offers are declined, families from the wait list will be bumped up until the entire $1 billion taxpayer-funded program is expended. State officials have also said they will survey the people who refused the vouchers to improve the program for next year.
Newly appointed Interim Comptroller Don Huffines released a video statement on social media last week touting the “unprecedented demand for education choice” and noting that more than 100,000 vouchers have been issued. Forty-two percent of the recipients are white, and 70 percent were previously enrolled in private school or homeschool.
“Our program is built on a simple but powerful idea: parents know what’s best for their children,” Huffines says in the video. “This is a win for Texas because education freedom encourages competition, allows parents to cut the chains of government and choose a path that fits their child’s unique needs and talents.”
Travis Pillow, a spokesman for the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, did not respond to numerous requests for comment on Tuesday and Wednesday. As the vouchers were being awarded last month, Pillow championed the program, repeating Gov. Greg Abbott’s statement that the program offers a choice for low-income families and students with disabilities that previously wasn’t available.
“Part of the goal of this program is that if you’re looking at education options for your child, affordability should not be the barrier,” Pillow said in a July 17 interview with the Houston Press,
Pillow also pointed out in the July interview that just because a family has previously enrolled a child in private school doesn’t mean they have a country club membership; they could be making financial sacrifices to ensure their child has what they believe to be a better education.
Opponents of the program have said that it’s contributing to lower enrollment at public institutions, which translates to less funding for already cash-strapped districts. Grant Coates, president and CEO of The Miles Foundation, a Fort Worth-based philanthropic group that focuses on early childhood education, said the vouchers, for many families, didn’t deliver what Texas families expected.
“The hard part was finding a school with an open seat, sorting out logistics and timing, or figuring out whether an available option actually fit their child,” he said. “The gap between getting an award and being able to use it is where the real family experience lives.”
The reasons for voucher refusal vary. Some parents say the award wasn’t enough to cover tuition or expenses they found out about late in the process, like the private school reading specialist. Some weren’t accepted into their preferred school, and some could only get into a place that’s too far away from their home.
According to the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency, about 60 percent of approved private school providers serve only pre-K and kindergarten students, and more than half of Texas counties do not have a private “brick-and-mortar” elementary, middle or high school accepting vouchers.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said education has become a major campaign issue in Abbott’s bid for re-election. In November, the governor will face Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, who has criticized the governor’s “voucher scam” since it passed last summer.
“There are a lot of teachers, administrators and parents who are mad about the fact that their districts are strapped for cash,” Rottinghaus said. “People have seen Abbott’s approach to this and think he doesn’t care much about public ed; he cares about cultivating his donors.”
It’s widely known that Abbott wants his legacy to be that of an “education governor,” evidenced by last year’s $8.5 billion public education funding plan that’s supposed to provide schools more money for staff pay raises, operational expenses and special education. Abbott announced Wednesday that he’s calling on the comptroller’s office to “investigate school district finances to ensure taxpayer dollars reach students and teachers.”
However, Abbott “kind of ended up with a mess on his hands” when it comes to public versus private education, Rottinghaus said, referencing how people are also upset about state takeovers of school districts.
“I think [Abbott] is really vulnerable on this issue because it’s not just whether you’re doing right or wrong. It’s more like, what coalitions are forming in favor of or against you?” Rottinghaus said. “The coalition in favor of private school vouchers is really small. The coalition in favor of public schools being stronger is much wider and includes the kinds of people he needs to stay in the fold: women, suburban voters, college-educated voters. If they all look at this and say, ‘We’re better off with a more robustly funded public education system, and Republicans haven’t delivered after 30 years in office,’ that’s a real risk for him.”
The professor pointed out that while the voucher program was once Abbott’s top priority and proudest accomplishment, the governor isn’t bringing it up during his stump speeches.
“It’s hard to brag about this, and you don’t see him doing that much anymore,” Rottinghaus said. “The numbers don’t lie. Most of the people getting vouchers were not in public schools, and if the point was to get people out of failing public schools and into these private voucher situations, it doesn’t seem like that’s come about.”
Jennifer Sitton, a Waco mom, told the Press her family was awarded a TEFA grant for a neurodivergent student with special education needs based on his Individualized Education Program.
“We were thrilled,” she said in an email. “He has struggled in our local public school district, which was taken over a couple of months ago by TEA. To our great disappointment, none of the approved providers in the Waco area were able to take my son because of his disability. The only school in the Waco area willing to take my son is unable to become a TEFA provider solely because they do not meet the two-year operational requirement.”
Sitton said she reached out to lawmakers in hopes that legislation could be introduced in the 2027 session to allow flexibility for new schools serving the special education population, “but we have not gotten anywhere.”
So it’s back to public school for her child — and the waived voucher might well end up subsidizing a student who was already enrolled in private school.
Back in Houston, the mom who found out about the $6,000 reading specialist said she’s still scrambling to figure out what’s next. Her child can’t go to a public or charter school while she’s accepting and has already spent TEFA funds, so there’s no simple fix. More importantly, however, she wants to make sure her child gets the attention she needs to prepare for the next grade level, and eventually, college.
“My reservation is, is my kid going to succeed?” she said. “I don’t think we’re going to know until later this year. If, let’s say, by Christmas break, my kid is struggling and just not thriving, we’re ‘pot committed’ for the year because we’ve accepted the funds. We knew it was a risk, but no one mentioned the fees, all the costs and the mandatory requirements.”
