Some private schools see rapid growth amid launch of Texas Education Freedom Accounts
Texas is entering a new era of education this school year with the launch of the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA), and some private schools in North Texas are already rapidly growing at an unprecedented pace.
The Texas Education Freedom Account program is arguably the biggest hot-button topic of the 2026-2027 school year.
This is Texas's first year using $1 billion of taxpayer money to fund private school expenses for eligible families who applied to the program. They are also commonly known as school vouchers.
"The program, as far as in our diocese, 100% reached the families that needed it most," said Frank Perez, superintendent of Fort Worth Catholic Diocese Schools.
Perez said their expectations for this program were far exceeded. So much so that they may need to build new schools in the future.
"I thought, well, if we see one to two kids per campus, that's pretty good,"Perez said. "But we're seeing between 400-600 students that are brand new to our schools, which is amazing. Then the students that were currently enrolled, a significant number of them also received an ESA if they qualified. The two major ones, which is most of the people who qualified, was for special education needs, and the second was for income."
In total, over 85,000 students so far will benefit from TEFA aid, according to a report from the new Texas Comptroller Don Huffines.
He called this a record-setting school choice program, making it the third-largest education savings account program in the country.
According to the Huffines report:
- Nearly one in four participants has a documented disability.
- Approximately four in five participants are in households earning less than $66,000 per year for a family of four.
- As of July 29, more than 120,000 eligible applicants are awaiting additional funding.
Meanwhile, public schools face new challenges tied to potential student loss.
At the beginning of the year, some volunteers within Coppell ISD went door-to-door to recruit and keep students in public education.
"The dynamics have just changed so much," said Kevin Nevels, a volunteer to recruit for Coppell ISD. "There is so much more competition, and I think as a parent, that's the oddest thing to me."