Texas has approved more than 2,700 private schools and nearly 2,200 vendors to collect money from the state's new $1 billion voucher program, but Comptroller Don Huffines' office won't say how much any single school or vendor actually received. The office has released only broad spending totals sorted into 13 categories, leaving parents, lawmakers and watchdog groups unable to trace exactly where taxpayer dollars are landing.
The refusal comes despite Huffines having long touted his support for open government and taxpayer transparency. According to the Houston Chronicle, his office rejected public information requests filed in July and September seeking details on how millions of dollars were distributed to individual schools and vendors. The office cited student privacy, arguing that releasing school-level payment amounts could constitute a student record identifying an individual child and violate federal law, while separately acknowledging that spending data could reveal how many voucher recipients attend private school — something officials said is not itself illegal.
A Program Built From Scratch, With Few Rules on Disclosure
Texas law put the comptroller's office in charge of building the entire program, officially called Texas Education Freedom Accounts, and deciding how to spend its $1 billion budget, according to the Texas Tribune. That includes choosing the companies hired to administer the program, writing the rules families must follow, and producing annual reports on outcomes. The comptroller's office also cited Texas' history of not collecting or disseminating information on homeschooled and private-school students as a reason for withholding voucher spending data, per the Chronicle's reporting.
The office has said it is hiring an auditor to examine voucher transactions, consistent with a state law requiring the program to undergo at least one audit per year — a requirement the Tribune's reporting also confirms. Among the companies already cashing in is Odyssey, a New York-based finance and technology firm the comptroller's office selected to help manage the program; the state could pay Odyssey up to $52 million over four years for its services, the Tribune reports.
Other States Disclose Far More
Texas limits even basic public-school departure data to districts where at least 30 students leave for vouchers, and state law requires only annual disclosure of voucher recipients by zip code — not by school or vendor. That stands in contrast to other states with established programs. Ohio discloses voucher student counts and payments for each private school, while Indiana law requires publication of total award amounts per private school along with participating student counts, limiting publication only when fewer than 10 students are enrolled at a given school.
Joshua Cowen, a Michigan State University professor who has studied vouchers for two decades, said most states report voucher payments to private schools and called it unreasonable for Texas to withhold all information on payments to schools or vendors. Arizona, Cowen's research area also shows, investigated voucher expenditures after local reporters identified questionable purchases within that state's program — an illustration of the kind of scrutiny that detailed disclosure can enable.
Crayons, Loopholes and a Senate Hearing
The opacity has already drawn pointed questions from lawmakers. State Sen. José Menéndez asked during a Texas Senate Committee on Education hearing whether anyone audits vendor prices after a single red Crayola crayon was listed for $2.20 in the program — well above the $1 to $1.49 he said a full pack typically costs. Travis Pillow, assistant program director for the voucher program, responded that the price likely included shipping, and said every dollar spent through the program must go toward an approved and qualified educational expense.
Menéndez also pressed officials on why the comptroller's office encouraged parents to apply for $2,000 homeschool vouchers when their children's private school wasn't on the approved private-school list, calling the arrangement a possible loophole. Pillow said parents do not have to homeschool their child to receive the $2,000 voucher. The program currently lists nearly 200 entities as private schools that are also acting as vendors of educational products or services, and some approved vendors include microschools, childcare companies, a Rowlett food caterer, and athletic and apparel companies, according to the Chronicle's findings.
Advocates Say Families Deserve Answers
Carrie Griffith, co-founder and executive director of Our Schools Our Democracy, a group opposed to the voucher program, said her organization has been unsuccessful in obtaining detailed information about voucher spending despite repeated attempts. “There’s no excuse for the failure to provide answers on who’s profiting from the billion dollars to select schools and vendors,” Griffith said, adding that taxpayers deserve to know how their money is spent.
Separate research from Griffith's organization found that of 59 voucher-approved schools reviewed, many did not publicly post tuition rates, according to Our Schools Our Democracy. The group's research also flagged conflicting vendor counts across official materials — a comptroller media release cited nearly 2,400 vendors, a TEFA Toolkit listed 1,200 approved vendors from 40 states, and a September fact sheet put the number at 2,700 vendors from 46 states, with no clear explanation for the discrepancies.
Political Stakes Ahead of November
Huffines, a former state senator and multimillionaire business owner who defeated Gov. Greg Abbott's preferred candidate in the Republican primary, faces Democratic state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin in the Nov. 3 election. Eckhardt has said vouchers require transparency and honesty if they are expected to improve children's educational outcomes, and has signaled she plans to audit the voucher program if elected.
Huffines' office has defended its approach. Spokesperson Jeff Norwood said Comptroller Huffines will protect the confidential information of participating children and families from organizations like the Houston Chronicle to help prevent the doxxing of Texas students, and argued that Texas has the country's most transparent and successful education freedom program. In an August news release, Huffines said Texans deserve fairness and transparency from their government.
Rapid Growth, Real Dollars
The program's scale has grown quickly. Families had spent more than $270 million of state voucher funds and nearly $50 million on purchases through the state-created online portal as of Oct. 5, according to the comptroller's office. Eligible students can receive roughly $10,400 annually to attend private school, with special-education students eligible for up to $30,000 and homeschooled students receiving $2,000 for items like tutoring, computers and textbooks.
Demand has far outpaced early projections. The program drew roughly 275,000 applicants, according to NBC DFW, and more than 100,000 students remain on the waitlist, per Houston Public Media. That outlet also reported that about 70% of awardees were already enrolled in private school or homeschooled before receiving a voucher, raising questions about how many are genuinely shifting out of public education.
The financial ripple effects on public schools are becoming clearer, too. Texas public schools are projected to lose an estimated $300 million in state funding this year because of the voucher program, according to a report from Every Texan cited by Houston Public Media, with more than 700 school districts reporting at least one student leaving the public system through the program. Separately, an investigation by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune, reported by the San Antonio Express-News, found that most of the 30 Texas private schools operated by Alpha Schools have been accepted into the voucher program.
