TEXAS — More than 100,000 Texas students have been awarded funding through the state’s voucher program, Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA), also known as an Education Savings Account. As of June, nearly 11,000 preschoolers have received awards for the 2026-27 school year. It’s the grade level with the most students awarded.
Private preschools accepting this funding are seeing increased interest in enrollment ahead of the new school year. The Country Home Learning Center has 10 locations across Austin and San Antonio.
“We also offer not only regular infant care through after school — we have dance class, computer classes, yoga class, Spanish class. So pretty diverse,” said Betsy Ramos, director of Country Home Learning Center’s Northwest Austin campus.
It costs about $380 a week for a 3 to 4-year-old student to attend the Country Home Learning Center for its preschool program full-time. Now TEFA funds can help cover tuition.
“Allows parents to use state-funded money to pay for private school instead of public school, and they have more of a choice,” Ramos said.
With the Country Home Learning Center accepting this funding, they are seeing more tours getting scheduled, particularly in San Antonio.
“The school is just right now getting phone calls, touring, but nothing concrete that we have gotten, but our San Antonio (locations), we’ve been getting a lot of interest in that,” Ramos said.
She and her school’s curriculum coordinator, Rima Hadid, say they are prepared for more students.
“Our classrooms and teachers are always ready for anything new,” Hadid said. “We are so happy to get new kids and new enrollments.”
Country Home Learning Center’s preschool program is not the only one seeing an increase in interest for accepting school vouchers. Across Texas, about 2,600 private schools are now accepting state funding, including Spark Learning, an inclusive preschool in Austin.
“We’ve had families ask,” said Hannah Hiracheta, preschool program director at Spark Learning. “Both families who are currently enrolled, who have applied and received the funding, being able to attend more days due to that funding. We’ve also had families who are just exploring different schools and have asked questions and asked if we accept the funds, and so being able to do so has been super helpful.”
TEFA is helping give parents the option to choose where to enroll their children without money being a huge barrier. Ramos says the smaller class sizes of private schools are a draw for many parents.
“Now that they have the benefit that the state is willing to pay for them to come to a place like this… there’s no choice,” Ramos said. “Of course they’re going to pick something like this.”
For Country Home Learning Center schools, even if enrollment increases, their preschool class sizes will remain the same. New teachers will be hired if needed.