U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett issued the temporary restraining order Tuesday, hours before the original deadline was set to expire.
The ruling requires the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) website to reflect the new March 31 cutoff within 24 hours. Comptroller officials must also provide registration links to two plaintiff schools — Excellence Academy and Katy Houston Qur’an Academy — within the same timeframe.
The order permits limited discovery, including a deposition of a comptroller’s office representative, and sets an April 24 hearing for a potential permanent injunction.
Two federal lawsuits challenge the exclusion of Islamic schools from the $1 billion program, which the Texas Legislature approved last year. One suit, filed by a parent, argues that the bar violates the Free Exercise Clause, the Establishment Clause, the equal protection, and due process provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
In late January, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion affirming that Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock has authority to disqualify schools under the program’s “other relevant law[s]” clause if they violate prohibitions on material support to designated terrorist organizations.
“Let me be crystal clear: Texans’ tax dollars should never fund Islamic terrorists or America’s enemies,” Paxton said in the January statement. “The Comptroller’s Office has always possessed exclusive authority under the TEFA framework to stop any school illegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries from accessing taxpayer dollars, and this opinion affirms that authority. There is no question that the Comptroller’s Office is statutorily charged with ensuring that our school choice program is protected from abuse by terrorists or the Chinese Communist Party.”
The lawsuit describes the designation as a “pretext to exclude Islamic schools from TEFA based on broad, guilt-by-association theories that treat hosting community events, facilitating civic education, or being located at addresses where Islamic organizations have met as disqualifying ‘ties’ to terrorism,” according to court filings.
Gov. Greg Abbott designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a terrorist organization in November. CAIR has sued over the label, calling it defamatory and unlawful, and denies the allegations.
“We welcome the court’s decision to extend the application deadline and recognize the serious concerns raised about the exclusion of Islamic schools from Texas’ voucher program. All families, regardless of their faith, deserve equal access to educational opportunities supported by public programs,” CAIR said in a statement. “The lack of approved Islamic schools raises important questions about whether the program is being implemented in a fair, inclusive, and nondiscriminatory manner. We urge state officials to take immediate steps to ensure that faith-based schools, including Islamic institutions, are given a fair opportunity to participate.”
The TEFA program offers average annual awards of $10,474 for qualifying students to cover private school tuition, textbooks, and uniforms. Students with disabilities or individualized education programs can receive up to $30,000, while homeschooled students qualify for $2,000.
From February 4 through March 17, more than 200,000 applications were submitted. Comptroller data indicate that 79% of applicants intend to use the funds for private school expenses.
The program prioritizes students with disabilities in a lottery system; about 11% of applicants — roughly 18,000 — are such students from families at or below 500% of the federal poverty level.
Income breakdown among applicants shows:
35% at 200% or less of the federal poverty level ($66,000 or less for a family of four);
36% between 200% and 500% ($66,001 to $164,999);
29% at 500% or more ($165,000 or higher).
Award notices were previously expected in April, with families having until mid-July to select schools, though new timelines have not been announced. The comptroller will provide waitlist data to lawmakers for potential future funding adjustments.
