WACO, Texas (KWTX) – Nearly 176,000 students have signed up for Texas Education Freedom Accounts, the school choice program that gives parents money to put toward private education.
Spokesperson for the program says there is not enough funding available to cover every student who applies.
According to the state’s data, 5,117 students in Central Texas have submitted applications to participate in the state’s school choice program.
Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock’s office said it is seeing record demand, including an uptick in submissions on Monday.
According to Travis Pillow, a spokesperson for the TEFA program, said one out of every four students who applied was enrolled in a public school during the 2024-25 school year, meaning 75% of applicants were not in a public school that year.
“We know that a lot of the signups in year one have come from families who were contacted by their local private school or where the private school was leading outreach in their community,” Pillow said. “We also know the families who ultimately participate are going to come from more low-income and middle-income households than the people who have applied overall.”
The program does not operate on a first-come, first-served basis.
Students with disabilities and students in lower-income areas will be prioritized first.
Pillow said a lottery system will be used because applications exceed available funding.
“The legislature requires us to first fund students with disabilities who are in middle-income or below households, then we are going to move into low-income households and keep funding students as long as funds are available, then we will move into the middle-income group,” Pillow said. “Whichever group we run out of funding, that’s when the lottery will begin. We will place students in random order and then fund students based on the randomized lottery process.”
Pillow said the program will track which students receive funding and which do not in order to inform lawmakers.
“We will keep track of the waiting list so if a family does not get funding this year, we are required to keep a list of all the families who do not get funding, report that to the legislature to inform their future decisions about funding,” Pillow said.
The deadline to submit an application is Tuesday, March 17, at 11:59 p.m.
Applications can be submitted at educationfreedom.texas.gov.
Parents who have already applied will be able to select their preferred school in July, when funding will also be finalized for each student.
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