By Saral-Al-Shaikh, ABC13 Houston
Applications continue to pour in for Texas’s new school voucher program.
More than 160,000 families have already applied for the education savings accounts, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office.
The program would give families about $10,500 a year for private school tuition, or roughly $2,000 to help cover homeschooling expenses.
But early data raises new questions about who’s signing up.
Numbers, obtained by the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency, suggested many applicants may already be outside the public school system.
The data showed that only about 36,000 applicants reported attending a public school last year, and 117,000 applicants, which is about 76%, said they did not.
University of Houston education professor Duncan Klussmann said critics warned this could happen during the program’s first round of applications.
“I think many people who said, ‘Hey, is this really going to go to the kids you intended to help?'” Klussmann said. “We need to see if that’s going to be answered at the end of the day, once individuals are accepted into the program.”
The Comptroller’s office told ABC13 many of those applicants applied for Pre-K, Kindergarten, or first grade, so they may not have been enrolled in any school last year.
Ultimately, the Comptroller’s office said the program will prioritize students with disabilities and lower-income families first, which is defined as making less than $165,000 a year for a family of four.
But the demand for the program is already higher than the number of available spots. Only about 90,000 to 100,000 students are expected to receive funding.
In a news release, Comptroller Kelly Hancock said, “We are expecting to sell out in year one.” He added that his office will help build a strong foundation for school choice in Texas.
“Once all the applications are in, once the selection is done and we do an analysis of it, we’ll know for sure what percent of the funds are going to the students that it was intended to help and what percent of the funding is going to go to individuals already in private schools,” Klussmann said.
Applications are open until March 17. The Comptroller’s office said it will report the waitlist to the Texas Legislature to determine funding for future years.
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This story comes from our news partner ABC13 Houston.