New Data Shows Three-Quarters of Texas Voucher Applicants Were Already Outside Public Schools

Governor Greg Abbott's controversial billion-dollar school voucher program was pitched as deliverance for families trapped in underperforming public schools. The numbers arriving six days before the March 17 application deadline tell a different story. According to the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency, approximately 76% of the more than 150,000 applicants to the Texas Education Freedom Account program are already enrolled in private schools or are being homeschooled. "When Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's private school voucher program became law last year, proponents claimed it would give families who wouldn't normally be able to afford private school tuition more options," the Texas State Teachers Association noted in its analysis of the data.

Only about 36,000 families with students currently enrolled in Texas public schools have submitted applications. This is less than 1% of the state's roughly 5.5 million public school enrollment. Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock, whose office administers the program, reported more than 20,000 applications on the first day the portal opened on Feb. 4. "About 70 percent of these schools are concentrated in the greater metropolitan areas of Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin," the Comptroller's office reported, while more than 180 of Texas' 254 counties have no participating schools at all.

The data lands with particular weight in southern Dallas County, where DeSoto ISD faces a projected $19 million deficit. "A $10 million swing is about 250 potential positions," TEA Conservator Andrew Kim told the DeSoto school board in February. The district employs 700 people total.