Report details who will get the new school choice vouchers

Lawmakers required the Texas Comptroller to issue a demographic report every year when they passed the controversial school choice voucher program.

As required by Texas law, Texas Comptroller Don Huffines released a demographics report detailing who will receive an education savings account through the new school choice voucher program.

“Parents from every walk of life are demanding the power to direct their children’s education,” Huffines wrote, “Giving all parents the power to choose the right education for their child encourages schools to compete and deliver better results for all students. The initial success of this program speaks for itself.

After years of debate on an issue that took center stage of the 2024 Republican primary election, lawmakers approved the law allowing parents to use roughly $10,000 in public tax dollars on private and home schools. Legislators prioritized low-income, students with disabilities and their siblings in the program.

The data shows their goals became reality.

According to the report, 20,700 students with disabilities were approved from families making 500% of the Federal Poverty Limit or less, equal to or less than a family of four making $165,000 or less. 12,800 siblings of those children were approved for the program as well.

The largest share of approved students, 51,800, came from families making 200% of the poverty level or less, meaning a family of four making $66,000 a year or less.

"Less than 30" students were approved from families making between $66,000 and $165,000 a year.

“We kept saying, 'this can work.' We can implement a program that serves low income and children with special needs. And it’s gratifying that it played out this way," said Laura Colangelo from the Texas Private Schools Association.

43,751 male students were approved. 41,593 female students will receive an education savings account.

As for racial data, roughly 40 percent of the students approved were white, 28 percent were Hispanic, 13 percent were black, followed by smaller amounts of mixed-race, Asian, and Native American students.

Not detailed in this report, but detailed in an earlier fact sheet from the state, shows 57% of the students approved were already enrolled in a private school the year before. That means roughly 48,000 students will now get state money to help their families pay for those private or home schools. Roughly 37,000 students across the state will be leaving public schools and going to a private or homeschool, according to the data.

Colangelo told NBC DFW students already enrolled in private school likely heard about the program more from the private school staff and leadership they already attend, giving them a slight edge on information.

“They had a captive audience. They had notes in backpacks. 'Just FYI, this program is available if you make less than this amount of money this year. You qualify so go ahead and apply,"' said Colangelo.

Supporters of the program aim to get the word out into the public schools. That, however, sparks the fears of many Democrats and some remaining rural Republicans, who fought for years against the choice voucher program.

Democratic statewide candidates in the November 2026 election are openly campaigning on scrutinizing the program, though they recognize repealing the law will be extremely difficult.

“As a member of the executive branch, I would execute the voucher as written, but I would also report back to the people of the state of Texas and to their legislature how that investment is actually robbing our public education system," said Texas State Senator Sarah Eckhardt, D - Austin, who's running against Comptroller Huffines in this fall's election.

275,000 applicants aimed to get an education savings account, so the state will have well over a 100,000 person waitlist if lawmakers decide to expand the program in the future.