Nearly 73,000 education freedom accounts received initial funding Wednesday as part of Texas’ new school choice program.
The Texas Education Freedom Account (TEFA) program allows eligible families to use state funds for approved educational products and services. Participation in the program is determined through a lottery system based on the student and family needs.
Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock said the program includes both private school and homeschool families in the first group to receive funding from the program.
Homeschool families will receive their full annual $2,000 award, while private school students will receive the first 25 percent now, with the remainder being awarded throughout the rest of the school year.
Recipients who were selected before June 22 have until July 15 to select a participating school, which in turn has until July 31 to confirm to the state that the student is enrolled in their institution.
“As we launch the nation’s largest year-one school choice program, our office is committed to helping families find the education that best fits their child while delivering a first-class experience and protecting taxpayer dollars,” Hancock said.
The TEFA Marketplace also opened on July 1, giving participating families access to purchase more than 54,000 eligible products and services to use with program funds.
Eligible products and services include “private school tuition, textbooks, instructional materials, tutoring and other approved education expenses.”
The marketplace has multiple safeguards intended to protect taxpayers by ensuring funds are only used for approved educational expenses. These features include allowing recipient families to only purchase approved products and services through the TEFA Marketplace website; charging no fees for parents, vendors, or schools; and every dollar that is spent will be audited by the comptroller’s office, the auditor’s office, and an independent firm.
As of the application deadline on March 31, more than 274,000 applications had been received for the program.
Families can find the latest information on the TEFA program here.
