For years, Gov Greg Abbott has been pushing the Texas legislature to subsidize private school tuition. After tries in multiple sessions, he finally got the bill he wanted, signing it into law in May, 2025, for
the 2026-27 school year.
The subsidy is massive. $1 billion from state funds, up to $10,000 per student capped at 85% of tuition, and $2,000 per home-schooled student.
Since the spending is limited, there's a lottery to participate. They
are beginning with disabled students who will have priority. I haven't
read enough about it to understand if there is a family income cap for participating but it's expected that the subsidy will mainly go to
children already enrolled.
Abbott didn't say so explicitly, but everybody knew that would be
used to subsidize tuition at religious schools and it was intended
to encourage enrollment at Evangelical Christian-based schools.
That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works.
There's that pesky anti-Establishment Clause in the First Amendment plus
a half dozen or so federal laws prohibiting religious discrimination.
The state tried to prevent Islamic schools from benefitting from the
program, but a federal judge ruled that the state must allow Islamic
schools to participate and that the application deadline must be
extended. I'm sure they reliably teach civics, lessons in American
liberty, and unbiased history lessons without putting any religious interpretation, just like Christian schools.
For those with no ability to detect sarcasm, no, public schools don't necessarily teach history without spin and haven't explicitly taught
civics and liberty in decades. When I was a yout', I remember unlearning quite a bit of American history in college versus the way I had been
taught in junior high and high school. It was disappointing.
How can publicly-subsidized Islamic school enrollment possibly go
wrong? Good job there, Texas.
On Mar 19, 2026 at 6:14:01 AM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
For years, Gov Greg Abbott has been pushing the Texas legislature to
subsidize private school tuition. After tries in multiple sessions, he
finally got the bill he wanted, signing it into law in May, 2025, for
the 2026-27 school year.
The subsidy is massive. $1 billion from state funds, up to $10,000 per
student capped at 85% of tuition, and $2,000 per home-schooled student.
Since the spending is limited, there's a lottery to participate. They
are beginning with disabled students who will have priority. I haven't
read enough about it to understand if there is a family income cap for
participating but it's expected that the subsidy will mainly go to
children already enrolled.
Abbott didn't say so explicitly, but everybody knew that would be
used to subsidize tuition at religious schools and it was intended
to encourage enrollment at Evangelical Christian-based schools.
That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works.
There's that pesky anti-Establishment Clause in the First Amendment plus
a half dozen or so federal laws prohibiting religious discrimination.
The state tried to prevent Islamic schools from benefitting from the
program, but a federal judge ruled that the state must allow Islamic
schools to participate and that the application deadline must be
extended. I'm sure they reliably teach civics, lessons in American
liberty, and unbiased history lessons without putting any religious
interpretation, just like Christian schools.
For those with no ability to detect sarcasm, no, public schools don't
necessarily teach history without spin and haven't explicitly taught
civics and liberty in decades. When I was a yout', I remember unlearning
quite a bit of American history in college versus the way I had been
taught in junior high and high school. It was disappointing.
How can publicly-subsidized Islamic school enrollment possibly go
wrong? Good job there, Texas.
The hyper-religious nutbags never learn this lesson: when you open your government up to one religion, all the others will follow.
Santa Monica had to deal with this decades ago over a Christmas nativity scene
on the lawn outside city hall. They were sued over it and the court didn't prohibit it but told them they had to also make space for displays from any other religion that wanted to put one up. First came a Jewish menorah, then a Hindu display, and on and on. The city finally gave up when the Church of Satan demanded space to erect a pentagram and statue of Baphomet.
For years, Gov Greg Abbott has been pushing the Texas legislature to subsidize private school tuition. After tries in multiple sessions,
he
finally got the bill he wanted, signing it into law in May, 2025, for
the 2026-27 school year.
The subsidy is massive. $1 billion from state funds, up to $10,000
per
student capped at 85% of tuition, and $2,000 per home-schooled
student.
Since the spending is limited, there's a lottery to participate. They
are beginning with disabled students who will have priority. I
haven't
read enough about it to understand if there is a family income cap
for
participating but it's expected that the subsidy will mainly go to
children already enrolled.
Abbott didn't say so explicitly, but everybody knew that would be
used to subsidize tuition at religious schools and it was intended
to encourage enrollment at Evangelical Christian-based schools.
That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works.
There's that pesky anti-Establishment Clause in the First Amendment
plus
a half dozen or so federal laws prohibiting religious discrimination.
The state tried to prevent Islamic schools from benefitting from the
program, but a federal judge ruled that the state must allow Islamic
schools to participate and that the application deadline must be
extended. I'm sure they reliably teach civics, lessons in American
liberty, and unbiased history lessons without putting any religious interpretation, just like Christian schools.
For those with no ability to detect sarcasm, no, public schools don't necessarily teach history without spin and haven't explicitly taught
civics and liberty in decades. When I was a yout', I remember
unlearning
quite a bit of American history in college versus the way I had been
taught in junior high and high school. It was disappointing.
How can publicly-subsidized Islamic school enrollment possibly go
wrong? Good job there, Texas.
On Mar 19, 2026 at 6:14:01 AM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman""
<ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
For years, Gov Greg Abbott has been pushing the Texas legislature tohe
subsidize private school tuition. After tries in multiple sessions,
finally got the bill he wanted, signing it into law in May, 2025,for
the 2026-27 school year.per
The subsidy is massive. $1 billion from state funds, up to $10,000
student capped at 85% of tuition, and $2,000 per home-schooledstudent.
Since the spending is limited, there's a lottery to participate.They
are beginning with disabled students who will have priority. Ihaven't
read enough about it to understand if there is a family income capfor
participating but it's expected that the subsidy will mainly go toplus
children already enrolled.
Abbott didn't say so explicitly, but everybody knew that would be
used to subsidize tuition at religious schools and it was intended
to encourage enrollment at Evangelical Christian-based schools.
That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works.
There's that pesky anti-Establishment Clause in the First Amendment
a half dozen or so federal laws prohibiting religiousdiscrimination.
don't
The state tried to prevent Islamic schools from benefitting from the
program, but a federal judge ruled that the state must allow Islamic
schools to participate and that the application deadline must be
extended. I'm sure they reliably teach civics, lessons in American
liberty, and unbiased history lessons without putting any religious
interpretation, just like Christian schools.
For those with no ability to detect sarcasm, no, public schools
necessarily teach history without spin and haven't explicitly taughtunlearning
civics and liberty in decades. When I was a yout', I remember
quite a bit of American history in college versus the way I had been
taught in junior high and high school. It was disappointing.
How can publicly-subsidized Islamic school enrollment possibly go
wrong? Good job there, Texas.
The hyper-religious nutbags never learn this lesson: when you open
your
government up to one religion, all the others will follow.
Santa Monica had to deal with this decades ago over a Christmas
nativity scene
on the lawn outside city hall. They were sued over it and the court
didn't
prohibit it but told them they had to also make space for displays
from any
other religion that wanted to put one up. First came a Jewish
menorah, then a
Hindu display, and on and on. The city finally gave up when the
Church of
Satan demanded space to erect a pentagram and statue of Baphomet.
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