Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued a new legal opinion affirming that the Texas Comptroller’s Office has the “exclusive” authority to determine which private schools and education vendors are eligible to participate in the state’s new school choice program.
The Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) allow eligible families to use school choice funds for private school tuition, homeschooling expenses, and other approved education services beginning with the 2026–27 school year—up to $10,000 per student.
Last month, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock asked Paxton for clarity on whether certain schools could be disqualified from the program if they have ties to entities designated under Texas law as foreign terrorist organizations or transnational criminal organizations, or if they are linked to foreign adversaries.
According to the request, some prospective TEFA applicants are accredited through Cognia, a Texas Private School Accreditation Commission-approved accrediting agency, but operate at addresses that have hosted publicly advertised events organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Gov. Greg Abbott has designated CAIR as both a foreign terrorist organization and a transnational criminal organization under Texas law.
Hancock also cited concerns that another Cognia-accredited school may be owned or controlled by a holding group linked to individuals associated with the Chinese communist government.
Paxton’s opinion states that the Legislature “unambiguously vested” the comptroller with the duty to establish and administer TEFA, including the responsibility to find facts bearing on eligibility. The attorney general’s office, Paxton wrote, cannot decide “unexplored fact questions” through an opinion process.
Paxton wrote that TEFA participation is also conditioned on compliance with “other relevant laws,” including bans on aiding foreign terrorist organizations and restrictions on property ownership by certain transnational criminal organizations. Schools or vendors that violate those laws can be deemed ineligible for the program.
In a press release announcing the opinion, Paxton said the comptroller has “full, exclusive statutory authority” to stop taxpayer dollars from flowing to schools illegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries.
“Let me be crystal clear: Texans’ tax dollars should never fund Islamic terrorists or America’s enemies,” Paxton said. “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.”
Paxton also said that his office “stands ready” to defend against legal challenges to lawful determinations made by the comptroller to prevent abuse of the program by terrorists or foreign adversaries.
