This text was initially printed by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative information outlet and journal. Join their weekly publication, or observe them on Fb, X, and Bluesky.
Even earlier than the Texas Legislature lastly handed its non-public college voucher invoice earlier this yr, the race was on among the many handful of corporations within the burgeoning voucher vendor sector to win the profitable contract to launch and administer what would be the largest program of its type within the nation.
That race is now over because the Texas Comptroller final month awarded the job to a New York agency known as Odyssey. In successful the bid, and in its plans to ramp up this system, Odyssey cultivated shut ties to the political world of Governor Greg Abbott.
One of many prime outfits within the voucher vendor sport, Odyssey is backed with main enterprise capitalist investments. Because the Texas Observer beforehand reported, Odyssey and others pushed arduous to win the Texas contract, basically the business’s holy grail.
Awarding the contract to the non-public administrator of this system — generally known as an authorized instructional help group (CEAO) — marks a key milestone within the voucher rollout because the comptroller delegates management of just about each side of this system, from dealing with purposes and approvals for college kids to accepting the non-public faculties and different distributors eligible to take part, plus controlling the stream of state cash backward and forward. Odyssey will even be accountable for the advertising and marketing and PR concerned with selling and defending this system, which the state has dubbed “Texas Training Freedom Accounts.”
Voucher funds might be eligible for use not just for taking part non-public faculties’ tuition and homeschooling but additionally for tutoring providers and an array of different instructional supplies.
Abbott staked a lot of his hard-earned political capital, and marketing campaign money, on getting the college voucher program over the end line. Within the 2024 Republican primaries, he used his political conflict chest to oust a number of anti-voucher incumbents who’d beforehand blocked passage within the Texas Home. This effort was aided by a file $6 million in marketing campaign contributions from Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvania billionaire and voucher advocate.
Through the legislative session, Odyssey tapped lobbyist Luis Saenz, who was beforehand Abbott’s longtime chief of employees, to work on its behalf because the governor labored to go the invoice (It additionally made Daniel Warner, ex-Speaker Dade Phelan’s training coverage advisor, its state director.)
For PR, Odyssey will even flip to Abbott allies, based on its bid proposal, which the Observer obtained below state open data legislation: Odyssey employed the Austin agency Vianovo to run public relations for this system, with a crew that features John Wittman, Abbott’s former communications director, and Matthew Hirsch, Abbott’s ex-deputy chief of employees.
“Vianovo will function the lead for proactive media engagement throughout Texas, constructing relationships with journalists, pitching optimistic tales in regards to the Program, and coordinating interviews with Comptroller employees, taking part households, college leaders, distributors and suppliers,” the proposal states. It could additionally deal with any turbulence that will emerge. “Within the occasion of controversy or misinformation, Vianovo will present disaster communications technique, problem fast response steering, and guarantee a constant, aligned message throughout stakeholders.”
In rolling out this system, Odyssey stated in its bid proposal that it plans to associate with an extended listing of “outdoors stakeholders” to “elevate consciousness” of personal college vouchers in Texas. These entities embrace highly effective conservative organizations: the American Federation of Youngsters, People for Prosperity, the Membership for Progress, the Texas Public Coverage Basis (TPPF), the Texas Conservative Coalition Analysis Institute, the Texas Residence College Coalition, and Texas Values Motion. These teams supplied appreciable political assist to Abbott as he campaigned for legislative assist round vouchers over the previous two years.
Odyssey’s contract will value the state a complete of $26 million for 2026 and 2027 with an possibility to increase for 2 extra years past that, in addition to $2 million a yr for a advertising and marketing marketing campaign. The legislation stipulates that the state will pay such distributors, or CEAOs, as much as 5 p.c of the biennial funding, which is at present $1 billion. The ceiling for the contract worth may dramatically enhance sooner or later as this system’s prices are projected to leap to round $5 billion by the tip of the last decade.
Odyssey’s bid was the bottom, based on the Houston Chronicle, in contrast with $40 million from Classwallet and $50 million from StudentFirst Applied sciences. The comptroller additionally graded Odyssey increased than these two opponents on its {qualifications}, efficiency in different states, and plan to implement this system in Texas, per the Chronicle.
The New York expertise agency has turn into probably the most fashionable gamers in its quickly rising area of interest market. Odyssey was based in 2021 by Joseph Connor, who had already made a profession in class privatization as a lawyer, marketing consultant, and founding father of a “microschools” firm. Connor additionally wrote an amicus transient for a important 2020 U.S. Supreme Courtroom determination ruling that state-funded non-public college vouchers didn’t equate to spiritual discrimination.
Because the Texas Tribune has reported, Odyssey additionally gained a $500,000 contest for training innovation based by Yass and his spouse. In response to the prize, Connor celebrated the Yass household for launching “an unbelievable motion to push for varsity alternative and training freedom nationwide.”
Odyssey pitched itself to Texas as the one vendor able to offering a totally automated system to manage all sides of this system. “From software to eligibility and funding to spending, our system removes friction and delivers real-time assist. Because the pioneer within the house, and nonetheless the one supplier in a position to confirm identification and ship eligibility determinations in seconds, we’ve demonstrated how automation can increase entry whereas guaranteeing integrity,” Connor wrote within the bid proposal.
Critics have pointed to points that Odyssey has had in operating comparable voucher applications in different states.
“Given Odyssey’s monitor file of operational mismanagement and misuse of state funds in a lot smaller voucher applications, Texans ought to sound the alarm in regards to the Comptroller’s determination to entrust Odyssey with $1 billion of our taxpayer {dollars} and the tutorial outcomes of our youngsters,” stated Maggie Stern of the general public training advocacy group Our Colleges Our Democracy in a press release final month. “We urge the Comptroller to make sure that discretionary info is included in a radical and public annual audit on how Odyssey manages Texas’ voucher program.”
The corporate’s work on different state voucher applications has been met with complaints. In 2022, Odyssey gained its first statewide contract in Idaho to run that state’s voucher-like program. As Idaho Training Information reported, the State Board of Training recognized $180,000 in ineligible purchases below this system, although a later audit recognized a smaller greenback quantity and the governor gave “this system a clear invoice of well being,” the Idaho outlet reported. Odyssey additionally needed to flip over curiosity it had earned from holding program funds in a checking account. In Iowa, the state auditor discovered the corporate’s contract elevated past its preliminary value to account for transaction charges.
The contract stipulates that Odyssey may face penalties if it doesn’t meet sure efficiency requirements, resembling preserving its on-line platforms operating and promptly processing transactions.
In a letter to the Texas Legal professional Basic, Odyssey argued in opposition to launch of sure supplies associated to its bid that it deemed confidential. “Given the significance of presidency contracts on this enterprise section, any perception into the method, and particularly the best way to win a authorities contract has important industrial worth,” the corporate wrote.
Odyssey additionally employed a gaggle known as Outschool.org to help with what it known as “grassroots” advertising and marketing of this system — with an emphasis on homeschooling households, who its bid identified are anticipated to make up a big share of program contributors and “face distinct boundaries” together with “issues over authorities interference, regulatory confusion, and lack of assist.” Odyssey and Outschool would associate with state dwelling college teams, together with the Texas Residence College Coalition, in addition to TikTok influencers to “ship program info from trusted voices.” Metal Digital Studios was additionally employed as a subcontractor for Odyssey, charged with heading up its promoting providers. That Austin agency has beforehand accomplished work with Texas state businesses and universities, along with native college districts.
The subsequent section within the voucher rollout — purposes open in February 2026—might be for Odyssey to arrange a web based “market” of authorised non-public faculties, together with different training distributors to supply eligible providers like tutoring, on-line studying, and curriculum materials. Odyssey might be totally accountable for that market, vetting every potential vendor and both offering its suggestions to the comptroller or, if the state chooses, making unilateral selections on distributors.
Since signing the vouchers invoice into legislation, Abbott has ensured his affect will prolong via the implementation of this system — together with with the bending of state legislation to make state Senator and key political ally Kelly Hancock the performing comptroller. (Hancock additionally named Mary Katherine Stout because the state’s voucher program director; Stout beforehand served as Governor Rick Perry’s finances director and as a vice chairman of TPPF.)
In an emailed assertion, an Odyssey spokesperson informed the Observer: “Like every firm doing enterprise in and with the State of Texas, Odyssey companions with the perfect specialists accessible who can assist administer this system and make sure that all eligible Texas households have the assets they should entry Texas Training Freedom Accounts. Odyssey is proud to have been the top-scoring firm in a aggressive bidding course of.”
Abbott’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.
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