EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — As the state rolls out the Texas Education Freedom Accounts – a new school voucher program – data from the Texas comptroller is shedding light on who is applying— and raising questions about whether local private schools have the space to accommodate them.
Statewide, more than 270,000 applications have been submitted. According to the data, 75% of those applicants are already attending private or home schools. Demographically, 45% of applicants are white and 23% are Hispanic, while 37% of the total applicants come from low-income families as defined by the program.
Closer to home, just under 4,400 applications came from the El Paso region. It is a turnout that both public and private school leaders say they view as a positive indicator for their respective campuses, albeit for different reasons.
Texas Education Freedom Accounts
Public Schools See Low Departure Interest
For local public school districts, the data suggests that a vast majority of families are choosing to stay.
Ysleta Independent School District Superintendent Xavier De La Torre tracked the voucher application numbers closely to see if dissatisfied parents were trying to leave the district.
The state reported only 137 voucher applicants came from students previously enrolled at YISD— less than 1 percent of the district’s more than 31,000 students.
“I was pleasantly surprised to see that the number is low,” De La Torre said. “It, I think, validates what we all believe in the district, and that is that we remain a strong, maybe the strongest option for parents and students in the El Paso region.”
He added: “I think it speaks to how well we do in this region with as little as we get. We still get high ratings.”
As for El Paso’s other major districts, El Paso ISD saw nearly 500 applicants, while more than 300 came from Socorro ISD.
Overall, the more than 4,000 voucher applicants in the region make up about less than 3% of El Paso’s public school students based on enrollment numbers from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) during the 2024-2025 school year.
Private Schools Highlight Parental Demand
Despite the low percentage of public school students applying to leave, private school advocates argue the numbers still show a clear need for financial assistance, especially for younger learners. Pre-K and kindergarten age groups saw the highest number of applicants compared to other grades.
Michael Phillips, executive director of Every Little Blessing (ELB) Preschool, a small private facility in El Paso for special needs students, said the demand is evident.
“I think what the numbers are telling us is that parents value early childhood education. They want quality programs for their students,” Phillips said. “They need some support in paying for it because it can be expensive and we want to narrow those gaps. And so parents are really wanting to start their children off with the best advantage possible.”
The Capacity Question
Even if El Paso students are approved for a state voucher, it does not guarantee them a seat in a private classroom. Private schools retain the right to choose who they admit, a factor De La Torre says is the most critical question moving forward.
“I think here in El Paso you’ve got some very good private schools and parochial schools. I acknowledge that, but they’re small schools,” De La Torre said. “They don’t have a lot of capacity, and they certainly can’t accommodate all of the families and all of the students that have applied for these vouchers. So it’ll be interesting to see how they decide who gets in and who they pass on.”
De La Torre added that because El Paso’s private schools are significantly smaller than those in larger metropolitan areas like Dallas or Houston, he wonders if local demand could quickly outpace capacity.
ELB for example, currently serves about 25 students, catering specifically to children with Down syndrome and similar disabilities. Phillips noted that if voucher-driven demand exceeds their classroom capacity, the school would prioritize admitting students with those specific needs.
“We would have to sit down and discuss that as a board and staff. But I think we would definitely look at the fact that our school serves children with Down syndrome and similar disabilities and in an inclusive environment with their typically developing peers. So I think we would look at those students with disabilities first, because that’s a focus for us and those ones that would qualify and would fit well in a setting such as ours,” Phillips said.
You can find the state comptroller’s data by clicking here.
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