The Program
$10,474 per child leaves the public school system for every TEFA voucher used
Texas created Education Freedom Accounts in 2025, and the first TEFA application window for families opened in February 2026. The state lists $10,474 per child for approved private school attendance in the 2026-27 school year.
Supporters call it choice. The funding consequences are less marketable. For many districts, especially rural ones, the numbers do not pencil out. When money leaves the system but transportation, staffing, and building costs stay fixed, public schools lose flexibility first and quality next.
What This Means for Your District
Texas already underfunds public schools relative to the scale of the need. Vouchers do not solve that. They create a new drain while letting lawmakers claim they expanded opportunity.
Parents should treat this as a structure question, not a branding question. What happens to the school most families still rely on after the money leaves. This is part of a wider fight over public education playing out in statehouses across the country.
Push Back
- Contact your Texas state representative and ask them to protect public-school funding as TEFA rolls out.
- Bring this issue to your school community. School board meetings, PTA groups, and local papers matter here.
- Read the bill text and district impact estimates before anyone tells you this is a simple parent choice measure.
Demand accountability for taxpayer-funded school vouchers →
Update, June 16, 2026: The Texas Education Agency released 2025-26 STAAR results on June 16, showing reading performance mostly flat or declining across grades 3 through 8. Only 49% of third graders met grade-level reading expectations, a 1-percentage-point drop from the prior year, according to the Texas Tribune.
Math scores improved in most grade levels, and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath credited a statewide public school cellphone ban for gains in middle school reading. The TEA will release fifth- and eighth-grade science results on July 31, followed by school accountability ratings in August.
Private schools participating in TEFA are not required to administer STAAR, so the data points released this week do not apply to most voucher-funded placements. Texas will replace STAAR with three shorter assessments administered throughout the school year beginning in 2027-28, which will further change the comparison available to families weighing public and private options.