Texas public schools will lose an estimated $300 million this year in state funding due to Texas' new voucher program, according to two watchdog groups tracking the program.
The report — released Thursday by two nonpartisan, anti-voucher groups, Our Schools Our Democracy and Every Texan – revealed, at minimum, 184 independent school districts will lose at least $227 million dollars in state funding due to students accepting vouchers and leaving their districts for private school or home schooling. Another 549 districts can expect to lose an estimated $67 million.
In 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott pushed back on claims the program would pull funding from public schools.
"If you like the public school your child is attending, it will still be fully funded,"Abbott said.
Abbott went on to make vouchers a signature issue in the 2024 Republican state legislative primaries, spending heavily to push out perceived opponents of the program.
Though funding for the program may come from another part of the state budget, annual public school funding is directly tied to student enrollment. The report conservatively estimated that for every student who left public school, the district would suffer a roughly $8,000 loss in state funding. Data from the comptroller's office shows 30% of voucher recipients were previously enrolled in public schools.
The program, formally known as Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA), passed into law in 2025 and began issuing its first vouchers to TEFA accounts this summer for use this school year. More than 200,000 students applied, exceeding the program's billion-dollar funding capacity. After the program awarded more than 120,000 vouchers, another 100,000 students still remain on the waitlist.
The Texas Comptroller's office, which oversees the program, has already asked the Legislature to consider doubling funding for the program to $2 billion.Houston Public Media'srequest for comment from the comptroller's office went unreturned.
Dee Carney, the executive director for Our Schools Our Democracy, urged lawmakers in September not to increase voucher funding until the public better understood its effects.
"Voucher supporters promised that public schools would not be harmed by the voucher program because it comes from a different pot of money," Carney said. "But vouchers have a public school price tag. There is an impact on public schools whenever the child leaves and the revenue with them."
The report is the first look at the direct effects the voucher program will have on public schooling in Texas. More than 700 districts reported at least one student leaving public schooling through the voucher program.
The Houston area led the state in Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) applications. Houston ISD alone lost 1,207 students to the voucher program. School districts in other major cities across the state also suffered big losses: Dallas ISD lost 807 students, 450 students left San Antonio ISD, 301 in Austin ISD, and in Forth Worth ISD, where the Texas Education Agency recently took over the district, 576 students accepted vouchers and left the district.
The report found the funding losses may be exacerbated in smaller, rural districts, and Carney said districts are not poised to absorb major funding cuts quickly.
"A public school district can’t reduce expenses dollar for dollar when a student leaves with a voucher because many of those costs, such as transportation, utilities, insurance, teachers – those are fixed costs," Carney said.
Carney added the funding losses may force districts to make major cuts.
"Texas families, lawmakers, taxpayers need to know that choices may be lost to public schools," Carney said. "Will they have to reduce teachers? [End] programs? Limit or eliminate extracurricular opportunities? Reduce student services, or close schools? What will be the response from districts who have a responsibility to their taxpayers to be efficient with dollars?"
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