Texas families now have at least another two weeks to apply for the state's new school voucher program after a federal judge in Houston ordered an extension on Tuesday – hours before the application window was set to close.
U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett ordered the deadline be extended from midnight Tuesday until 11:59 p.m. on March 31 amid an ongoing legal battle between Texas officials and a group of Muslim parents and Islamic private schools that sued over their exclusion from the program. Hudson said the judge also scheduled a permanent injunction hearing for April 24 and that the Texas comptroller's office, which is administering the $1 billion program, must ensure two Islamic schools – plaintiff Excellence Academy and the Houston Quran Academy in Katy, where another plaintiff's child goes to school – receive registration links to submit applications within 24 hours.
Hudson said the plaintiffs' immediate goal was to make sure the application window didn't shut parents out from Texas Education Freedom Accounts as a lottery system is being implemented because demand for the program, which allows taxpayer money to be spent on private school tuition, has outpaced state funding. The longer-term goal, Hudson said, is to ensure Islamic schools can participate along with other private and parochial schools in Texas.
"The state has rigged the lottery," Hudson said. "They’ve done it in a way to try to exclude Muslim parents so that when they run the lottery, they’re less likely to be in the lottery system."
The Office of the Texas Comptroller, the office tasked with overseeing the program, said it received the written order informing it of the extension Tuesday afternoon. The office said parents may submit new applications before the extended deadline, and those who have already submitted their applications may log on and update their child's information.
"This two-week extension will give families an additional opportunity to apply for the first year of school choice in Texas," Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock said. "We look forward to building on the record-setting demand for educational options that we have seen over the first six weeks."
RELATED: Muslim parents, private schools sue Texas over exclusion of Islamic institutions in voucher program
According to Hudson, the comptroller's office was ordered to announce the change in the application period within 24 hours.
There are two ongoing civil rights lawsuits, one filed by a Muslim parent and the other filed by multiple Muslim parents and a group of Islamic schools, asking federal courts to prevent the voucher program from discriminating on the basis of religion. The former suit names Hancock, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath as defendants, while the latter suit was filed against Hancock and Mary Katherine Stout, the manager of the Texas Education Freedom Accounts created last year by state lawmakers.
Bennett also ruled Tuesday that the lawsuits would be consolidated, according to Hudson.
The defendants are all being represented by attorneys in the Texas Attorney General's office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
More than 2,200 private institutions have been admitted to the voucher program, none of which are Islamic schools.
Hancock hadasked Paxton for guidancein December over concerns that some applicant schools hosted events with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and that others were accredited by Cognia, a private school accreditor that state officials allege has ties to the Chinese government. Gov. Greg Abbott in November declared CAIR to be a foreign terrorist organization, promptingpushback and legal actionby the nationwide civil rights organization.
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, CAIR welcomed the court's decision.
“The lack of approved Islamic schools raises important questions about whether the program is being implemented in a fair, inclusive and nondiscriminatory manner,” CAIR said in a statement. “We urge state officials to take immediate steps to ensure that faith-based schools, including Islamic institutions, are given a fair opportunity to participate.”
On Jan. 24, Paxton issued an opinion, though not legally binding, supporting Hancock's concerns, but punted the responsibility to investigate schools and determine their eligibility back to the comptroller's office. Paxton added that Texans deserve assurances that no taxpayer dollars will be used, directly or indirectly, to support institutions with ties to those groups.
"We appreciate the Attorney General's support of our full authority under state law to stop taxpayer dollars from being provided, directly or indirectly, to institutions tied to designated foreign terrorist organizations, criminal networks, or adversarial foreign governments," Hancock wrote in a statement posted to Facebook at the time. "This opinion makes clear that Texas will not tolerate taxpayer funds being diverted to bad actors."
Copyright 2026 Houston Public Media News 88.7