Teachers guide their students into a classroom building at Houston Quran Academy in Houston, Friday, May 9, 2025.
Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle
Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock is asking the attorney general’s office to shut down Houston Quran Academy in his latest bid to keep Islamic schools out of the state’s new private school voucher program.
In a letter sent Tuesday, Hancock accused the school of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that Gov. Greg Abbott has designated as a terrorist organization, and said Attorney General Ken Paxton should strip the academy’s charter to operate.
“The question is not whether these schools should be able to participate… it is why they were able to operate in Texas in the first place,” Hancock wrote in the letter that was first reported by the online news outlet Texas Bullpen.
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The letter is Hancock’s most aggressive move yet to keep Islamic private schools from the $1 billion program, and the first time he’s targeted or named a specific school.
Houston Quran Academy, a top-rated private school that primarily serves Muslim students, was admitted to the program this week following a temporary ruling from a federal judge, who called the state’s block on Islamic schools “troubling.” Families and groups sued the state earlier this month, saying the months-long exclusion of Islamic private schools amounted to religious discrimination.
The academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, they’ve denied any ties with terror groups.
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Hancock’s office confirmed the authenticity of the letter but said it did not have additional comment. Paxton’s office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On social media, Paxton responded by calling for Hancock to be removed from his post as acting head of the Comptroller’s office, which oversees the voucher program, and replaced by Don Huffines, who recently defeated Hancock for the GOP nomination for the job.
“Kelly Hancock is a Never Trumper and an incompetent loser who’s an embarrassment to the position of Chief Clerk that he holds,” Paxton wrote.
Hancock’s agency has long blocked the state’s roughly two-dozen Muslim private schools from applying to participate in the voucher program, which gives families state funds to pay for private school tuition and other education expenses. But he has never before singled out a specific school or accused one of having terrorism links.
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Hancock wrote that his office sought to block the academy from the voucher program over what he described as “documented ties” to the Muslim Brotherhood, based on a 1991 memo from the organization that allegedly named the school’s principal as a member.
Last fall, Abbott named the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist organizations. CAIR, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, sued, calling the designation “unconstitutional” and “defamatory.”
“As far as I am aware, you have not taken such steps against CAIR or any other Brotherhood affiliate,” Hancock wrote to Paxton. “I am writing to likewise urge you to use those tools, this time to prevent abuse of Texas’s school choice program.”
Hancock and Paxton have previously traded blame and responsibility for enforcing Texas’ terrorism laws. Before serving as acting Comptroller, Hancock was a state senator from North Texas and one of two Republicans who voted to impeach Paxton over corruption charges. Paxton was ultimately acquitted.
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Hancock has led the comptroller’s office on an acting basis since last June, and is expected to serve until the end of the year. Abbott backed his campaign for a full term in the Republican primary.