Senator questions voucher program's $2,000 'homeschool/other' awards for families using private schools

A San Antonio Democrat in the Texas Senate is pressing the comptroller's office over a part of the new school voucher program that can send money to families whose children attend private schools that have not signed up for it.

During a Senate Education Committee hearing held recently, Sen. José Menéndez asked how families qualify for awards of up to $2,000 under a category the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program calls "homeschool/other," KERA News reported Thursday.

How the category works

Travis Pillow, who runs the accounts program for the comptroller, told the committee the category is not reserved for traditional homeschoolers. He said a child can be enrolled at a private school outside the program and the family can still qualify for the $2,000.

That money cannot pay tuition. It can cover other approved educational costs, such as tutoring, therapy, learning materials, or lessons in things like piano and karate.

"Every dollar that is spent through this program needs to be for an approved and qualified educational expense," Pillow told lawmakers.

The senator's concern

Menéndez said he first noticed the issue in a Facebook exchange in which Pillow explained the category to a parent. At the hearing he summed up his reading of it this way: "Basically you're telling folks, check homeschool or other, you'll get the money and you can still use whatever school you want."

He said the bigger worry is accountability when a student who was counted as a private school student is moved into homeschool/other, calling it "a big, big loophole the size of a Mack truck to use it for almost anything." He said lawmakers need to be "thoughtful and careful" about it.

What comes next

The committee is reviewing the program's first year as the Legislature prepares for its next regular session, when lawmakers could double the program's $1 billion budget.

Sources

kera.org

State health agency proposes ending its Children's Autism Program; services funded through August 2027

Health and Human Services says most of the 655 children served last year had other coverage. Providers and the Autism Society of Texas say families would lose scarce help, and that the state can afford the roughly $14 million.

Demarcus RamosOctober 21, 20262 min read

Texas

No Texas law makes developers tell buyers about old oil wells; a San Antonio subdivision's well has now been replugged five times

Regulators say methane and hydrogen sulfide still escape from a well inside a new neighborhood, and the Railroad Commission's repeat plugging bill tops $1 million. A few cities, Fort Worth among them, limit building near old wells.

Demarcus RamosOctober 21, 20263 min read

Texas

Abbott says a sale of Boca Chica State Park land to SpaceX is not headed for a vote soon; parks agency says it is off the November agenda

Texas Monthly reported the Parks and Wildlife Commission planned to discuss selling 1,300 acres in Cameron County in closed session Nov. 5. Abbott and an agency spokesperson both say that is not happening next month.

Isabel WhitlockOctober 20, 20262 min read

Smith made Houston’s thirty-point headline a shared address

Jabari Smith Jr. matched Kevin Durant’s scoring total and helped answer Dallas’s late push. Houston’s win required the Mavericks to account for more than one prominent threat.

Dana FerrisOctober 22, 20263 min read

Sport

Overshown’s Clearance Turns Cowboys Comeback Into a Workload Test

DeMarvion Overshown is medically cleared to face Philadelphia, but Dallas is planning a measured return rather than assuming one announcement restores his old role.

Dana FerrisOctober 21, 20263 min read