FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2026
CONTACT: mstern@osod.org
Review of Voucher-Accepting Private Schools Highlights Barriers for Texas Families
Private schools in 15 lawmakers’ districts present compounding barriers for families seeking to enroll
AUSTIN, Texas – A review of 221 voucher-accepting private schools by the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency finds that access to private education is often shaped by a complex, multi-step application process with barriers including a narrow set of options for older students, selective admission requirements such as religious affiliation, lack of special education services, total cost of attendance, and lack of publicly-available information.
The review examines voucher-accepting private schools located within all 15 Texas House Public Education Committee member districts at the time of the study and analyzes admissions practices, tuition structures, enrollment criteria, and public access to information.
The findings point to a consistent theme: families may gain more options on paper than in practice in Texas’ $1 billion voucher program.
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- Over half of reviewed voucher-accepting private schools serve only Pre-K or kindergarten students, mirroring a statewide trend.
- Almost half of reviewed voucher-accepting private schools are religious. Nearly a quarter of reviewed schools use religious preference in admissions, including required statements of faith or reduced tuition for parish members.
- More than a quarter of the private schools raised specific, special education-related concerns, such as statements that they cannot serve students with specific disabilities or requirements to provide disability-related medical or psychological information during the admissions process.
- Over half of reviewed private schools do not publicly post tuition on their website. Nearly half of those that do post tuition charge more than the base voucher amount, with many charging additional fees for registration, technology, uniforms, extracurriculars, and penalties for late pick-up or late payments.
- Most Texas families seeking to use a voucher at a private school must undergo a complex, multi-step admission process, oftentimes with limited information available online. Just 11% of reviewed schools offered an online-only application. Many schools require at least one of the following: campus tours (45%), student or parent interviews (19%), and letters of recommendation (7%).
“Nearly 25,000 families have already opted out of the voucher program, and many have publicly shared that they declined the funding after facing multiple barriers trying to enroll in a voucher-accepting private school. This new report provides evidence of the complex private school landscape that voucher recipients are trying to navigate – one in which private schools choose their students through overlapping religious, financial, informational, and admissions requirements,” said Dee Carney, Director of the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency. “While the Comptroller seeks to double or possibly triple taxpayer funding for this program based on raw numbers on a waitlist, the more important information is how the program is actually working for the Texas families supporters claimed it would serve. The high number of opt-outs and the barriers faced by Texas families should raise concerns that the voucher program is offering more choice on paper than in practice.”
The full report is available here.
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The Texas Center for Voucher Transparency (TXCVT) is an initiative of Our Schools Our Democracy, a Texas-based nonpartisan and independent 501c3 nonprofit organization established to protect the fundamental rights of all Texans to a free, public education. TXCVT supports transparency, fiscal responsibility, and fairness in the implementation of the $1 billion taxpayer-funded Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) voucher program.