Pack your bags, kids! We’re heading to the promised land of private education, provided your parents have a 1040 tax form ready and your preferred school doesn’t accidentally share an office building with someone Governor Abbott had a bad dream about. Texas has officially opened applications for its $1 billion private school voucher program, and if you think this is going to be a smooth, equitable ride for the average Lubbock family, I’ve got a dusty, abandoned cotton gin I’d like to sell you.
The deal is simple: taxpayers hand over thousands of dollars so families can flee our “failing” public schools for the hallowed halls of private academies. Most families get $10,500, while homeschoolers get a cool $2,000—presumably enough to cover a year’s worth of printer ink and a “Science is Optional” curriculum. Of course, if the state runs out of money (and with $4.8 billion in projected costs by 2030, they will), they’ll start prioritizing based on income. But don’t get too excited, West Texas; even if the state gives you the voucher, the private schools don’t actually have to let your kid in. Especially if they have a disability, because apparently, “freedom of choice” only applies to the people running the admissions office.
Adding to the fun, we’ve got a classic Texas political side-show. Attorney General Ken Paxton is currently playing “Terrorist Whack-A-Mole,” blocking hundreds of schools from participating because they might have looked at a Muslim civil rights group once. This has resulted in the hilarious irony of Christian schools and schools for kids with disabilities being shut out of the program meant to “save” them, all because of an accreditation paperwork spat.
The money lands in “education savings accounts” managed by a tech company called Odyssey. Families can spend it on tuition, tutoring, or “transportation”—which in Lubbock terms probably means gas money for the trek to whatever private school hasn’t been blacklisted yet. Applications close March 17th, so you’d better hurry up and prove your citizenship before the pot of gold is sucked dry by families who were already paying for private school anyway.
Is it really a Texas success story if we don’t spend a billion dollars to create a solution that only works for people who didn’t have the problem in the first place?
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/04/texas-vouchers-application-open-private-school/