Families Can Buy Bible Studies, AI Classes, More With Private School Vouchers

Texas families can now use state tax dollars to pay for Bible studies, faith-based curriculum, online courses taught by artificial intelligence, and much more using their new private school vouchers.

The Texas Comptroller’s Office has accepted over 102,000 students to receive vouchers through Texas Education Freedom Accounts, ranging from about $10,000 to $30,000 for homeschool and private education, costing the state $1 billion in its first school year. Almost 1,200 vouchers have been awarded to families within Austin ISD as of June 24.

On July 1, the first voucher payouts went to almost 73,000 accounts. And on the same day, the TEFA marketplace opened, where parents can spend their child’s voucher funds at-will to privately hire tutors, special education (SPED) and therapy service providers, and purchase textbooks and curriculum. They can use the funds to pay for extracurriculars, like horseback riding and Christian summer camp.

Parents can also purchase Bible studies from providers like Driven by Grace, the Scripture Memory Fellowship, and The Gospel Project; AI-taught homeschool classes from the Delaware-based software company LittleLit AI; and the Philadelphia-based AI parenting coach HeyKiddo. The comptroller’s office could not provide the Chronicle with data about the religious affiliation of vendors.

The TEFA program is also abruptly changing leadership. Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock sent the governor his notice of resignation on July 1, months after losing the Republican primary against Don Huffines for the position in March. On July 2, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Huffines to become the third comptroller to lead the program since July 2025, set to take office Aug. 1.

Democrat Sarah Eckhardt will still run against Huffines for the comptroller seat in November, with the promise to audit the TEFA program a centerpiece of her campaign. The comptroller’s office did not reply to a request for comment about the transition of TEFA leadership to Huffines.

The comptroller’s office celebrated the TEFA marketplace as opening with 2,400 participating vendors, offering 54,000 educational items or services, but the marketplace lists just over 1,200 vendors as of July 7. Vendors can sell their products in the TEFA voucher market from out of state, as long as they’re registered to do business in Texas. 

When asked how the vendors and education offerings are being approved, TEFA spokesperson Travis Pillow told the Chronicle that the “biggest requirement” for marketplace participation is a criminal background check. Vendors, such as individuals who will tutor students, list meetup locations from home addresses to local libraries across the state. 

Pillow added that because there’s no deadline for vendors to apply, the comptroller’s office has rarely rejected vendors outright apart from failed background checks.

On July 7, the comptroller’s office uploaded a wide-ranging educator credential policy for tutors and instructors participating in the marketplace, but ultimately placed the responsibility on TEFA parents to ensure the vendor has the relevant “knowledge, skills, and professional competence” to teach their child. 

“If you’re a certified mechanical engineer, then you might be able to teach courses that are associated with your expertise,” Pillow explained.

When the academic effectiveness of Texas public school districts is continuously held accountable by the Texas Education Agency, Carrie Griffith, executive director of Our Schools Our Democracy, expressed concern about the lack of comparable academic accountability for TEFA educational offerings.

And with vendors as niche as an Austin-area textile bedazzler, Griffith said the comptroller’s office should also provide greater fiscal accountability to Texas taxpayers, when state tax dollars will be used to buy such products. 

“If there’s no accountability and little transparency into how the materials are going to be used, that is fiscally irresponsible,” Griffith said.

The SPED and therapy service providers are hired in lieu of the services public schools would offer at no cost. While public schools must evaluate students in need living within the district and provide individualized learning plans and services like occupational, speech, and dyslexia therapy, Texas private schools are exempt from those federal requirements.

Instead, TEFA parents can independently hire private SPED practitioners with or without their child receiving a medical evaluation or individualized learning plan, Pillow said.

“Parents are in the driver’s seat with this program,” Pillow continued. “And they have … the responsibility for ensuring that they’re spending their money appropriately and prudently on services or products that are going to serve their child well.”

When asked if the TEFA marketplace covers the breadth of SPED services that the local public school district would offer – and moreover, if TEFA families will have equitable access to the same services across the state – Pillow said it’s too early to identify “where there might be gaps in the market. But that’s definitely something that’s on our radar.”

Griffith worries that without professional oversight, such as through the admission, review, and dismissal (ARD) process for SPED students in public school, voucher students without existing evaluations may not receive services they need. SPED specialists within public schools are certified educators, an intersection that may not apply to private practitioners, she continued.

“These [SPED] determinations are going to be made outside of an ARD committee, outside of the professional and pedagogical expertise of an educator,” Griffith said. “And so whether or not the services actually address [the students’] educational needs in the highest quality way, no one will know. There’s no way of knowing.”

She also emphasized that the TEFA marketplace is creating another way for out-of-state actors to make money off of the Texas education system – at the expense of Texan taxpayers.

“[The vendor requirements] are very easy obstacles to circumvent to be able to access the money in Texas,” Griffith said. “Just like we see out-of-state charters coming into Texas to make money, I expect we’ll see a lot of out-of-state vendors doing the same thing.”

Editor’s note: We originally stated that Griffith told us SPED specialists in public education are often certified educators. She said all SPED specialists within public education are required to be certified educators. The Chronicle regrets the error.

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