Galveston families that secure Texas’ first vouchers for private school tuition won’t have to travel far to campus. Three schools that combine to serve all grade levels on the 40-square-mile island have received state approval to accept vouchers.
On the other end of the Houston region, families living within Aldine ISD’s 100-plus square mile territory will have access to just one voucher-approved campus that enrolls elementary and middle school grades — and not a single campus capable of taking high schoolers.
As Texas begins rolling out its $1 billion voucher program, with the application window opening this week, families across Greater Houston will have significantly different levels of access to nearby schools prepared to accept voucher recipients, an analysis of state data shows.
The variance likely will influence who applies for and receives state-funded vouchers, as well as which school districts feel the biggest brunt of student and financial losses tied to the program.
Under Texas’ voucher system, families can receive about $10,400 per child — rising to up to $30,000 for students with disabilities — to spend on private school tuition at state-approved campuses and other education expenses.
As of early this week, 436 private schools in the eight-county Houston area have received state approval to accept vouchers. About 250 of those schools only accept students in prekindergarten and/or kindergarten, while the rest enroll students in a wide range of grades. State officials continue to approve new school applicants on a rolling basis.
The analysis shows some Houston school districts, relative to their population size, have a wider array of potential private school options. They include families living within the boundaries of Houston, Spring, Spring Branch and Alief ISDs.
But families in other areas — including much of eastern Harris County and parts of Cypress-Fairbanks ISDs — would need to travel multiple miles to find the nearest voucher-approved school, particularly for grades beyond kindergarten.
“One of the challenges for families in some parts of Texas, especially rural areas, has been that they may have access to fewer educational opportunities,” said Erin Baumgartner, director of the Kinder Institute’s Houston Education Research Consortium. “To the extent that the purpose of the program is to offer families options, they may still be left out."
The geography of vouchers
Families, school district leaders and education advocates across the state are closely watching the debut of Texas’ first voucher program, which will start delivering money to families later this year.
With funding capped at $1 billion for 2026-27, the impact will be relatively small in a state where public schools budgeted nearly $80 billion in spending last academic year. (Students are entered into a lottery if demand for vouchers exceeds the available funding, with children from lower-income backgrounds and those with disabilities given priority.)
Still, lawmakers in Arizona, Florida and other states have rapidly increased voucher funding after debuting their programs — and Texas Republicans who backed vouchers haven’t shown any signs of slowing down the initiative.
For now, demand for vouchers remains unknown, with the application window open until mid-March. But the distribution of approved schools offers early insight into the supply of potential voucher-funded seats.
Relative to their public school district’s population size, families in Alief, Pearland, Fort Bend, Spring and Klein have the most early education voucher options. Many families on the outskirts of Greater Houston, along with those in Conroe and eastern Harris County, have fewer choices.
Notably, families can only receive a voucher for private pre-K classes if their child also qualifies under state law for free public school pre-K, a stipulation that could blunt interest in private options. Texas public schools must offer free pre-K to students from lower-income households and English language learners, among others.
The number of campus options narrow in the elementary, middle and high school grades — though approved campuses may have more seats available than early childhood centers. State data does not include the number of open seats by school.
Within Houston ISD’s boundaries, 47 campuses serving upper grades are approved to accept vouchers, including a dozen Catholic schools and a few of the region’s largest private schools.
Galveston County residents have plentiful options for elementary through high school grade levels relative to their population size, as do communities on the Harris-Montgomery county border.
By contrast, several larger communities have zero or one voucher-accepting campus for elementary through high schoolers. They include Alvin, Channelview, Cleveland, Galena Park and Sheldon.
Hitting district coffers
Houston-area school districts are monitoring how vouchers will affect their enrollment and funding. State budget analysts forecast that about 24,500 of Texas’ 5.5 million public school students, or roughly 0.4%, will switch to private schools in 2026-27.
The geographic distribution of state-approved vouchers puts some school districts at greater threat of losing students and the funding that follows them.
For Houston and Alief ISDs, the relatively large concentration of voucher-accepting schools in their territory could exacerbate enrollment losses over the past several years. Both districts have grappled with charter school expansion, declining birth rates and fewer households with children living within their boundaries.
If districts lose pre-K and kindergarten students to the large number of early education schools accepting vouchers, the financial impact could be immediate and long-term.
Districts might not be able to cut enough costs, including staffing and facility space, to make up for the loss in revenue tied to each student. (Texas currently provides the equivalent of half-day funding to districts for each pre-K student, though districts are required to provide full-day classes to students who qualify for free access.)
In addition, those losses could last for years if students ultimately opt to remain in private schools and never attend their public school.
Kinder Institute research analyst Annie Pham contributed to this report.
