(The Center Square) – A second lawsuit has been filed over Texas’ new school choice program alleging religious discrimination.
So far, three Islamic private schools and four parents have sued, arguing excluding their children from participating in Texas’ new school choice program is illegal.
At issue is a new Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program administered by the Texas Comptroller’s Office. The program will allocate $1 billion for roughly $10,000 Education Savings Account grants for roughly 100,000 students, prioritizing the disabled and low-income students. The majority of students who have applied, nearly 80%, attend private schools, The Center Square reported.
More than 160,000 students have applied and more than 2,200 schools have signed up to participate in TEFA.
In January, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a legal opinion stating private schools with potential connections to foreign adversaries were prohibited from participating. The opinion was issued in response to concerns the comptroller raised about “potential TEFA applicants accredited through a TEPSAC-approved agency, Cognia,” which is based at an address that has “hosted publicly advertised events organized” by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Last November, Gov. Greg Abbott designated CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization and transnational criminal organization. CAIR sued, rejecting the designation. Paxton said private schools connected to CAIR, the Chinese Communist Party and other organizations, may legally be excluded from TEFA. The comptroller’s office is responsible for determining foreign adversary connections, according to the opinion.
TEFA was launched Feb. 4. Within a month, the first plaintiff, Houston attorney Mehdi Cherkauoi, sued. He alleges the prohibition violates the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of his children attending Houston Qur’an Academy Spring, a Cognia-accredited Islamic K–12 school in Harris County.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston Division. It names Attorney General Ken Paxton, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock and TEA Commissioner Mike Morath as defendants, The Center Square reported. It requests the court to restore HQA Spring’s eligibility before the March 17 deadline and issue an emergency temporary restraining order to halt the prohibition.
“Since TEFA’s inception, Defendants have systematically targeted Islamic schools for exclusion based on their religious identity, perceived ‘Islamic ties,’ and alleged connections to organizations Governor Abbott has designated as ‘foreign terrorist’ or ‘transnational criminal’ entities – even where those schools are fully accredited, satisfy all statutory eligibility criteria, and have no actual connection to terrorism or unlawful activity,” the lawsuit alleges.
The second lawsuit was filed March 11 by three Islamic schools and three parents, Layla Daoudi, Muna Hamadah and Farhana Querishi, whose children attend the schools.
The plaintiffs include Bayaan Academy, Inc., an Islamic virtual 3-12 grade school with a location in Galveston County. It was previously approved to participate in TEFA. The lawsuit states that after the Houston Chronicle reported that Bayaan was the only approved Islamic school, it was removed from the TEFA website. “The school never received an explanation why from the comptroller’s office,” the Chronicle reported.
Another plaintiff is the Islamic Services Foundation, established in 1989 and based in Richardson. It’s the parent company of Brighter Horizons Academy, Islamic Curriculum Project, Muslim Yellow Pages and Texas Islamic Court.
Another is the Eagle Institute, a Montessori school that operates elementary and secondary schools based in McKinney.
They are represented by Austin-based Arambula Terrazas PLLC, which also filed the lawsuit in the Southern District of Texas. The lawsuit also makes similar arguments and requests.
More lawsuits are expected as “none of the Islamic schools in Texas got approved for the TEFA,” Shaimaa Zayan Operations Manager, Council on American Islamic Relations-Austin, Texas, told The Center Square. “What we are witnessing in Texas is religious persecution. Those families who chose private Islamic schools pay taxes like everyone else but were not evaluated based on objective criteria under the law Attorney General Ken Paxton himself advocated for. This exclusion didn’t apply the criteria mentioned in the law nor the spirit of the law that cried out for school choice.
“The comptroller’s role is to ensure fair distribution of the fund based on the objective criteria not to exclude schools of faith he dislikes and create grievances.”
CAIR has sued both Texas and Florida over FTO designations, winning the first round in Florida and not yet receiving a ruling in the Texas case, The Center Square reported. Since there’s been no ruling yet in the Texas case, Zayan asked why Abbott’s FTO designation was being used to prevent Islamic students from participating. “How can it be used to stigmatize all Islamic schools in Texas?” she asked.
She also argues the TEFA denial is based on an anti-Islam “narrative not reality. We have officials and politicians in Texas who have been creating panic around Muslims to justify religious persecution of peaceful law-abiding American Muslim citizens.”
