{"id":4578,"date":"2025-10-15T09:37:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T09:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/4578\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T09:37:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T09:37:19","slug":"local-catholic-schools-will-officially-accept-school-vouchers-archdiocese-of-san-antonio-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/4578\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Catholic schools will officially accept school vouchers, Archdiocese of San Antonio confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The Archdiocese of San Antonio has announced it will include all of its Catholic schools<\/a> in the state\u2019s new Education Savings Account program<\/a>, informally known as school vouchers. <\/p>\n

The controversial state law<\/a> will allow students to receive $10,000 for private school tuition or up to $2,000 for homeschooled students.<\/p>\n

Private schools are able to opt in or opt out of the program. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think people don\u2019t realize, they assume, \u2018Oh, I can use it at a private school.\u2019 But it has to be a private that has agreed to accept ESA funds,\u201d said Inga Cotton, School Discovery Network founder and executive director.<\/p>\n

WATCH BELOW: School Discovery Network founder discusses Education Savings Account program<\/p>\n

School Discovery Network<\/a> educates parents about types of schools in the area and helps them choose the ones that are right for their children.<\/p>\n

Cotton has become an expert on the Education Savings Account program and said not just any private school can join.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s certain requirements, like they have to be open for at least two years,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have to be an accredited program. They have to agree to administer some type of standardized test. It doesn\u2019t have to be STAAR. It could be a different test.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cotton said many private schools tell her they\u2019re still on the fence about opting in. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t know enough about the program,\u201d Cotton said. \u201cThey\u2019re concerned about overhead. They\u2019re concern about maintaining their freedom to teach what they want to teach. They\u2019re concerning about whether they can serve kids with special education, which they are not required to do.\u201d <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Archdiocese sent KSAT the following statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cCatholic schools in the Archdiocese of San Antonio are strongly promoting and participating in the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program, which provides funds for tuition at Catholic schools. Across the archdiocese, schools are preparing to welcome many new families through the launch of this effort. These institutions are courageously meeting new challenges with confidence, eagerly planning for growth. Recently passed legislation was the result of hard work from many people through the years, who have been consistently advocating to give parents a true choice in education for their children. Those interested in learning more can find additional information at sacatholicschools.org<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cotton said the announcement is a big deal because of cost. <\/p>\n

\u201cCatholic schools are some of the most affordable private schools in our region. So many of them, the annual tuition is already below what the ESA will cover. It makes it more affordable for families,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Cotton said if each student gets around $10,000, and tuition only costs around $8,000, that extra $2,000 can then be used for things like uniforms, school meals and transportation. It can even be rolled over into next year\u2019s tuition.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the comptroller\u2019s office announced it will open the official ESA portal to families in January 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies should be able to log in, create an account, apply, look at the handbook, look at the list of providers,\u201d Cotton said. <\/p>\n

Cotton said the time to research options is now, so when the portal opens, families can be ready. <\/p>\n

The School Discovery Network is holding one of its School Discovery Days<\/a> on Saturday, Oct. 18, where more than 40 schools will be available to speak with families, including public, charter and private schools.<\/p>\n

The event is at the San Antonio Zoo from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone going to the event gets free admission to the zoo. Registration is open on the School Discovery Network website<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Related coverage on KSAT.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The Archdiocese of San Antonio has announced it will include all of its Catholic schools…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4924,163,4923,82,84,83,4925,4380],"class_list":["post-4578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-archdiocese-of-san-antonio","tag-education","tag-education-savings-account","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-school-discovery-network","tag-school-vouchers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578","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=4578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}