Overview
- A second federal lawsuit filed this week by three Islamic schools and three parents alleges unconstitutional religious discrimination in Texas’ new voucher program, echoing a March 1 case by a Houston parent.
- At a Friday hearing, state lawyers said delays involve schools accredited through Cognia and issues with the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission, not the schools’ religious identity.
- U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett called it troubling that none of at least 30 applying Islamic schools have been approved and noted a gubernatorial post as suggesting a thumb on the scale.
- Plaintiffs seek emergency orders to require neutral processing of eligible Islamic schools and to pause the March 17 family-application cutoff so parents can apply through their chosen campuses.
- The TEFA program launched Feb. 4 with roughly $1 billion and about $10,000 per-student awards, drawing more than 160,000 student applications and over 2,200 participating schools as the state follows a January AG opinion enabling exclusion of schools with illegal ties to foreign adversaries.