(The Center Square) – Private schools that are connected to organizations with terrorist ties or foreign adversaries are prohibited from participating in the Texas’ new school choice program, the state attorney general says.
Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a legal opinion over the weekend in response to a request made by Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock.
Hancock is overseeing the roll out Texas’ first Education Savings Account program, Texas Education Freedom Accounts. TEFA, effective in the 2026–27 school year, provides taxpayer-funded ESA grants of roughly $10,000 to about 100,000 students. The new pilot program enables eligible parents to send their child to a school of their choice. TEFA funds apply to private school tuition, educational expenses for homeschoolers, tutoring, career and technical education programs, among other expenses.
In December, educators and schools began applying to participate in TEFA. Within 10 days of receiving applications, more than 600 private schools and more than 200 education service providers, including tutors, had applied, The Center Square reported.
Applicants include private schools with potential connections to foreign adversaries, Hancock said, citing Islamic and Chinese groups that were allegedly accredited by a Georgia-based company, Cognia. Texas private schools are accredited by one of 19 agencies approved by the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission, including Cognia, The Center Square reported.
“Recent findings have raised significant legal and taxpayer protection concerns,” Hancock wrote Paxton. “Potential TEFA applicants accredited through a TEPSAC-approved agency, Cognia, are based at an address that have hosted publicly advertised events organized” by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Hancock said.
Last November, Gov. Greg Abbott designated CAIR as both a foreign terrorist organization and transnational criminal organization. CAIR has rejected the designation and sued Abbott. Texas leaders have also taken multiple actions in the last few months, calling for investigations of Islamic groups and Sharia law, The Center Square reported.
Hancock also said “that another Cognia-accredited school may be owned or controlled by a holding group linked to foreign adversaries seeking influence over U.S. education, specifically, an adviser to the Chinese communist government. These circumstances appear to implicate newly enacted laws restricting property ownership, control, and financial influence by foreign adversary entities in Texas.”
Abbott and the state legislature have also taken a series of actions to protect Texans from the Chinese Communist Party, including counter espionage, cybercrimes, prohibitions on land purchases, among other measures, The Center Square reported.
“The people of Texas deserve the highest assurance that no taxpayer dollars will be used, directly or indirectly, to support institutions with ties to a foreign terrorist organization, a transnational criminal network, or any adversarial foreign government,” Hancock said.
Paxton agreed, saying, “This is without question.”
The four-page opinion states, “While we cannot shoulder your statutory responsibilities, we can offer general legal guidance in support of your duty to ensure the TEFA program is not used as a means of unlawfully subsidizing designated enemies of the state.”
The comptroller is authorized to prohibit private school participation under an “other relevant law” provision in Texas Education Code. Section 29.358(h)(2) “incorporates by reference other laws that govern the lawful operation of educational service providers and vendors that aspire to participate in the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program,” the opinion states. “This includes the prohibition on property ownership by transnational criminal organizations as well as the categorical bar on providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations, both of which govern educational service providers and vendors alike. The Legislature has charged the Comptroller with the exclusive duty of finding facts on which such ‘relevant law’ can be applied.”
Paxton says the comptroller has full, exclusive statutory authority to prohibit schools from TEFA participation, saying the 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.”
“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,” Paxton said.
If a private school sues after it is blocked from participating in TEFA, Paxton says his office “stands ready to vigorously defend legal challenges to any lawful determination by the Comptroller’s Office aimed at preventing terrorists or our Nation’s enemies from abusing the TEFA program.”
