The Texas Comptroller’s Office is distributing Texas Education Freedom Account money to more than 50,000 additional families this week, officials announced Monday.
The agency distributed money last month to more than 42,000 applicants in the first priority tier of the new school voucher-like program. Award letters will go out this week to students selected from the second priority category — students whose families fall at or below twice the federal poverty level.
The comptroller’s office announced last month the program has enough funding in its first year to cover all applicants in the first tier, which includes low- to middle-income students with disabilities and their siblings. After those students were covered, the agency planned to hold a lottery to determine which applicants in the second tier would receive money.
More than two-thirds of the Tier Two students receiving funding through the program are already enrolled in private school or home school, according to figures released Monday. A total of 1,548 of those recipients live in Dallas ISD’s geographic boundaries.
In a statement, acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock called the program “groundbreaking for Texas.”
“More students will now have access to an education path that fits their needs, and the Comptroller’s office is working carefully to launch this program the right way and serve families well,” he said.
Critics of the program worry that it will balloon in size in the coming years, eventually draining money from public schools.
Texas lawmakers created the program during last year’s legislative session. They allocated $1 billion for the program’s inaugural year, enough to serve about 90,000 to 100,000 students. But demand quickly outstripped the money available. By the time the program’s application window closed, nearly a quarter of a million students had applied.
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