{"id":208874,"date":"2026-03-17T22:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/208874\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T22:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:22:08","slug":"federal-judge-extends-texas-education-freedom-accounts-application-deadline-to-march-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/208874\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge extends Texas Education Freedom Accounts application deadline to March 31"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas\u2019 school voucher-style program<\/a> application window has been extended by two weeks, following a federal judge\u2019s order Tuesday. He cited concerns about the exclusion of Islamic schools from the program. <\/p>\n

With applications to the Texas Education Freedom Accounts set to close at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett, of the Southern District of Texas, granted a temporary restraining order. At a Tuesday morning court hearing, he called it \u201ctroubling\u201d that Islamic schools were being left out, according to the Houston Chronicle<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the court\u2019s decision to extend the application deadline,\u201d said the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Texas in a statement. \u201cAll families, regardless of their faith, deserve equal access to educational opportunities supported by public programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 200,000 students applied<\/a> to the $1 billion program, according to the state Comptroller\u2019s Office, which runs TEFA. Families can receive public money to support their child\u2019s private schooling<\/a> and homeschooling<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Education Lab<\/p>\n

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Related<\/p>\n

\"Governor<\/p>\n

While at least 2,200 schools have been approved to accept TEFA funds, no accredited Islamic schools have been signed off to take part in the state program. The fate of Islamic schools\u2019 participation has been up in the air, following pushback from state leaders. <\/p>\n

In March, Islamic schools and parents filed two lawsuits against state officials, including acting State Comptroller Kelly Hancock, on the basis of religious discrimination. <\/p>\n

\u201cDefendants have created a system where Muslim families cannot even select their schools in the application portal,\u201d court documents in one lawsuit, filed on March 11, read. \u201cIslamic schools and students are denied the same opportunity afforded to their religious and secular peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Signage<\/p>\n

In addition to extending the deadline, Hancock must give plaintiff schools access to submit TEFA applications, per the Tuesday court order. <\/p>\n

In December, Hancock asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton whether schools could be excluded from the program, if they were linked to a \u201cforeign terrorist organization,\u201d \u201ctransnational criminal network,\u201d or \u201cadversarial foreign government.\u201d <\/p>\n

In late January, Paxton issued an opinion<\/a> that the comptroller\u2019s office has \u201cfull, exclusive statutory authority\u201d to block private schools based on their political affiliations, including some Islamic and Chinese-linked schools.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Some schools that applied to the program have hosted events organized by CAIR, the country\u2019s largest organization dedicated to advocating for civil rights of Muslims, Hancock said. Abbott designated CAIR as a \u201cforeign terrorist organization\u201d and a \u201ctransnational criminal organization\u201d in November.<\/p>\n

The permanent injunction hearing has been set for April 24, according to Eric Hudson, an attorney representing Bayaan Academy, one of the schools suing the state. <\/p>\n

Staff writer Milla Surjadi contributed to this report. <\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.<\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab\u2019s journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas\u2019 school voucher-style program application window has been extended by two weeks, following a federal judge\u2019s order Tuesday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[815,4179,163,166,1881,4379,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-208874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-courts","tag-ed-lab-politics-policy","tag-education","tag-education-lab","tag-faith","tag-school-choice","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}