Texans have till 11:59 p.m. Tuesday to use for college vouchers after a federal choose denied a request from Islamic colleges and Muslim households to increase the deadline for a second time.
4 Muslim mother and father and three Islamic non-public faculty suppliers that function 4 campuses had sued Texas leaders for excluding the faculties over unsubstantiated terrorism allegations whereas accepting lots of of different non-Islamic colleges.
The lawsuit asks the courtroom to dam the voucher program from discriminating on the premise of faith. As a part of the dispute, U.S. District Decide Alfred Bennett on March 17 prolonged the voucher software deadline by two weeks and ordered the state to contemplate the faculties’ request to affix this system.
Appearing Comptroller Kelly Hancock — Texas’ chief monetary officer who manages vouchers — just lately accepted 5 colleges cited within the lawsuit into this system (one of many colleges didn’t sue however is attended by the kids of a suing mum or dad). Since then, the comptroller has additionally accredited Islamic colleges that didn’t sue.
However the colleges and households who filed the lawsuit sought one other deadline extension and reduction for any Muslim household or Islamic faculty affected by the comptroller’s choice to exclude them. They added one other Muslim mum or dad to the criticism.
The following courtroom listening to is about for April 24. Verify again for updates because the lawsuit and voucher software course of unfold.
Voucher program updates
Comptroller’s workplace: All eligible Islamic colleges accredited
The Texas comptroller’s workplace stated Tuesday that it has accredited all eligible Islamic colleges that utilized to take part within the voucher program.
Travis Pillow, a spokesperson for the comptroller, stated the workplace has despatched registration hyperlinks to all Islamic colleges that utilized and that meet the state’s baseline necessities, which embrace being accredited and having operated for at the least two years.
“As we put together to confess college students into this system and start funding their accounts on July 1, our workplace is dedicated to investigating any failure to adjust to program necessities or different relevant legislation by any collaborating faculty or service supplier,” Pillow stated in an announcement.
“We’ll carefully look at any credible report alleging fraud or illegal exercise by a collaborating faculty, vendor or training service,” he added. “Right now, no faculty has obtained funding via this program. We’ll make sure that no taxpayer funding flows to organizations affiliated with overseas adversaries or terrorist organizations.”
Decide denies request for an additional deadline extension
Bennett, the federal choose overseeing the case, denied Islamic colleges’ and Muslim households’ request that he lengthen the voucher software deadline to April 14.
Bennett stated the earlier extension was primarily based on “a particular and restricted exhibiting” that the Islamic colleges had been excluded from the voucher registration course of. The state, Bennett famous, has since accredited these colleges to take part in this system.
“And regardless of the general public consideration this case has obtained, no further colleges have sought to intervene on this motion,” Bennett’s ruling stated. “Accordingly, the Courtroom won’t lengthen emergency reduction primarily based on accidents to entities that aren’t events earlier than the Courtroom.”
Bennett added that the ruling doesn’t resolve claims from colleges and households who alleged the state discriminated towards them and that he expects each side to have arguments ready for the April 24 listening to.
Muslim households, Islamic colleges ask the choose to increase voucher deadline
The households and colleges requested that Bennett transfer the deadline from March 31 to April 14. Additionally they requested that the courtroom not permit the state to start the method of figuring out who can obtain voucher funds till the April 24 listening to.
Despite the fact that Hancock, the comptroller, has accredited some Islamic colleges, the attorneys argue that the late approval has deterred Muslim households from making use of and has skewed the make-up of the applicant pool. When colleges obtain approval to affix this system, attorneys stated, households want time to search out out and react.
The attorneys additionally known as the state’s acceptance of some Islamic colleges “late, partial, and unstable.” They cited a current letter from Hancock to Legal professional Common Ken Paxton that known as on the state’s high lawyer to sue Houston Quran Academy to dam the varsity from working in Texas. The comptroller’s workplace just lately accepted the varsity, attended by one of many suing households, into the voucher program. Hancock has accused the varsity of getting ties to terrorism, although state leaders have offered no proof to the courtroom substantiating that declare.
Hancock’s letter to Paxton, the attorneys argue, reveals that accepting colleges now doesn’t stop the comptroller from excluding them later.
The suing households and colleges, in the meantime, need the choose to approve a request that will apply any courtroom orders to all Muslim mother and father and Islamic non-public colleges looking for entry to vouchers, now or sooner or later.
Texas has allowed some non-suing Islamic colleges to take part
After the current courtroom order required Hancock’s workplace to assessment the plaintiffs’ request to affix the voucher program, the comptroller accredited 5 Islamic colleges cited within the lawsuit. However in current days, the workplace has additionally quietly added some Islamic colleges that didn’t sue.
The attorneys representing Muslim households counted at the least a dozen non-suing Islamic colleges accredited by the comptroller since March 23, although not all of them seem in Texas’ voucher faculty database.
The comptroller’s workplace declined to touch upon the additions, solely noting that if a college seems within the database, it has been accepted.
Why Muslim households, Islamic colleges sued
Mehdi Cherkaoui, a Muslim father of two kids and lawyer representing himself, filed the primary lawsuit, arguing that state leaders “systematically focused Islamic colleges for exclusion.”
The Islamic colleges blocked from becoming a member of meet the voucher program’s eligibility necessities and “haven’t any precise connection to terrorism or illegal exercise,” the lawsuit states, together with Houston Qur’an Academy Spring, a non-public faculty attended by Cherkaoui’s two kids.
Cherkaoui pays virtually $18,000 per 12 months in tuition for his kids and desires to use for the practically $10,500 per little one in voucher funding to offset these prices, in keeping with the lawsuit. However with Islamic colleges blocked from this system, the swimsuit says, Cherkaoui couldn’t full the appliance.
“The exclusion is just not primarily based on individualized findings of illegal conduct by any particular faculty, however somewhat on categorical presumptions that Islamic colleges are suspect and doubtlessly linked to terrorism by advantage of their non secular id and neighborhood associations,” the lawsuit states.
Earlier than the voucher program’s originalMarch 17 deadline for household functions, the lawsuit requested that the courtroom require the state to simply accept all Islamic colleges that meet program necessities. It additionally requested the choose to ban the state from delaying or denying approval primarily based on colleges’ non secular id, alleged “Islamic ties,” or “generalized associations with Islamic civil-rights or neighborhood organizations absent individualized, adjudicated findings of illegal conduct.”
A second lawsuit, filed March 11, made related requests. The swimsuit was filed by Bayaan Academy, the Islamic Companies Basis (Little Horizons Academy and Brighter Horizons Academy), and The Eagle Institute (Excellence Academy), which function non-public colleges in Galveston, Dallas and Collin counties, respectively. Three mother and father who joined the lawsuit — Layla Daoudi, Muna Hamadah and Farhana Querishi — have kids enrolled in non-public colleges which can be a part of the lawsuit.
The courtroom mixed the 2 lawsuits into one case. The attorneys added Zubair Ulhaq, a mum or dad looking for vouchers for his two kids, to the lawsuit.
How the state responded in courtroom
Paxton’s workplace — which represents the comptroller — stated the comptroller’s workplace has not “denied” any non-public colleges and argued that as a result of households who apply for vouchers don’t have to pick out a college till July 15, they aren’t harmed by the exclusion of Islamic colleges.
The attorneys additionally instructed the choose they didn’t know of any Islamic colleges that had engaged in terrorism or damaged state legal guidelines.
The Islamic colleges suing the state are accredited by Cognia. Cognia-accredited colleges require impartial assessment, the state argued, as a result of firm “erroneously” itemizing colleges as accredited with out finishing required steps.
Islamic colleges can’t be harmed, Paxton stated, till the comptroller denies their functions or doesn’t decide their eligibility by July 15. The state additionally argued “it could be essentially unfair” to increase the appliance deadline and “disrupt” the academic plans of lots of of hundreds of oldsters.
Since these arguments, Paxton has pushed to withdraw his workplace’s attorneys from the case after Hancock publicly criticized their authorized protection technique and made terrorism allegations towards an Islamic faculty with out submitting proof to the courtroom.
“Your public letter made brand-new and incendiary claims with out offering any confidence that diligent investigation supported them,” Paxton stated to Hancock. “Your public letter reduces these newfound claims — that will have a fabric impact in your authorized defenses in these instances — to a political charade that makes efficient authorized illustration unimaginable.”
What’s the voucher program?
Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Invoice 2 into legislation in 2025, authorizing the creation of a statewide program that enables households to make use of public funds to pay for his or her kids’s non-public faculty or home-school training.
Between Feb. 4 and March 31, nearly any household with school-age kids in Texas can apply to take part. A lottery will decide who can obtain the funds, pending their acceptance to a non-public faculty. Personal colleges occupied with becoming a member of this system can apply on a rolling foundation, so long as they’ve existed for at the least two years and obtained accreditation.
Greater than 250,000 college students have utilized, whereas greater than 2,200 non-public colleges have been accepted.
Hancock in late 2025 requested an opinion from Paxton, asking if he may exclude colleges from the voucher program primarily based on their connections to teams designated as overseas terrorist organizations or overseas adversaries.
Hancock stated colleges accredited by Cognia had hosted occasions organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Abbott just lately designated a terrorist group. CAIR has sued Abbott over the label, calling it defamatory and false. The U.S. State Division has not designated CAIR as a terrorist group.
Texas Republicans have made anti-Muslim rhetoric a focus throughout major election season. Hancock, appointed by the governor on an interim foundation, ran to serve a full time period as comptroller earlier than dropping his race.
Hancock shut lots of of Cognia-accredited colleges out of the voucher program, together with those who primarily serve Muslim college students, Christian college students and youngsters with disabilities, which the Houston Chronicle first reported.
Paxton launched an opinion in January stating his perception that Hancock can block sure colleges from collaborating if they’re “illegally tied to terrorists or overseas adversaries.” Earlier than the lawsuit, no Islamic colleges have been identified to have been accepted into the state voucher program whereas the state had accredited different faith-based colleges. Some Islamic colleges had proven up on the accredited record earlier than that, however Hancock later eliminated them.
The comptroller’s workplace stated it started inviting Cognia colleges that it considers in compliance with the legislation to take part, although particulars of that assessment are unclear.
This text first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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