{"id":243727,"date":"2026-04-10T15:20:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/243727\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:20:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:20:33","slug":"el-paso-sees-over-4k-school-voucher-applications-public-private-educators-weigh-in-on-what-it-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/243727\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso sees over 4K school voucher applications; public, private educators weigh in on what it means"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 As the state rolls out the Texas Education Freedom Accounts \u2013 a new school voucher program \u2013 data from the Texas comptroller is shedding light on who is applying\u2014 and raising questions about whether local private schools have the space to accommodate them.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Education Freedom Accounts<\/p>\n

Public Schools See Low Departure Interest<\/p>\n

For local public school districts, the data suggests that a vast majority of families are choosing to stay.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The state reported only 137 voucher applicants came from students previously enrolled at YISD\u2014 less than 1 percent of the district\u2019s more than 31,000 students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pleasantly surprised to see that the number is low,\u201d De La Torre said. \u201cIt, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think it speaks to how well we do in this region with as little as we get. We still get high ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for El Paso\u2019s other major districts, El Paso ISD saw nearly 500 applicants, while more than 300 came from Socorro ISD.<\/p>\n

Overall, the more than 4,000 voucher applicants in the region make up about less than 3% of El Paso\u2019s public school students based on enrollment numbers<\/a> from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) during the 2024-2025 school year.<\/p>\n

Private Schools Highlight Parental Demand<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what the numbers are telling us is that parents value early childhood education. They want quality programs for their students,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capacity Question<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think here in El Paso you\u2019ve got some very good private schools and parochial schools. I acknowledge that, but they\u2019re small schools,\u201d De La Torre said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have a lot of capacity, and they certainly can\u2019t accommodate all of the families and all of the students that have applied for these vouchers. So it\u2019ll be interesting to see how they decide who gets in and who they pass on.\u201d<\/p>\n

De La Torre added that because El Paso\u2019s private schools are significantly smaller than those in larger metropolitan areas like Dallas or Houston, he wonders if local demand could quickly outpace capacity.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019s a focus for us and those ones that would qualify and would fit well in a setting such as ours,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n

You can find the state comptroller\u2019s data by clicking here. <\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 As the state rolls out the Texas Education Freedom Accounts \u2013 a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[93151,93152,138,140,139,13087,47964,5189,27,5622,80045],"class_list":{"0":"post-243727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-de-la-torre","9":"tag-education-freedom","10":"tag-el-paso","11":"tag-el-paso-headlines","12":"tag-el-paso-news","13":"tag-michael-phillips","14":"tag-private-schools","15":"tag-school-voucher-program","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-texas-comptroller","18":"tag-voucher-application"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243727","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=243727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}