Texas is moving full speed ahead on one of the most controversial education policies in the country: school choice.
The state’s billion-dollar program will help parents use public funds to help pay for private school tuition, homeschooling costs and other educational expenses.
Texas has selected a private tech company to administer the program: Odyssey, which is based in New York and manages education funding in a handful of other states. And it will be responsible not only for processing applications, but also helping decide which families get access to the money first.
Isaac Yu, who covers state politics for the Houston Chronicle, said Odyssey will serve as a middle man that will pass the funds between the state, families, and schools and vendors.
“They’re gonna be rolling out this program over the course of the next year. We should have a platform at some point this year, I’m told,” he said. “And then families will be able to apply at the start of the year, according to our state officials.”
This is a program known as universal choice, which Yu said means anyone can apply as long as they have a child who is eligible to be going to a public school: K-12 students, plus 4-year-olds who are eligible for pre-K.
“Then there are kind of prioritization buckets,” he said. “So if you are in special education, have special education needs, or you fall into certain income thresholds, then you’re prioritized within the program up to a certain amount.”
» GET MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE: Sign up for Texas Standard’s weekly newsletters
Yu said we don’t know how many companies threw their hat in the ring to manage this program in Texas.
“We know there were three finalists, and the comptroller hasn’t said a ton about why this company is chosen, just that they have a strong track record,” Yu said. “We do know that Odyssey specifically has some ties to lawmakers who are key to the school choice movement.”
The maximum Odyssey can make under the current contract with the state is $50 million.
“That’s pegged to 5% of the program’s total appropriation at $1 billion,” Yu said. “But the thing to remember is, you know, the 5% peg will grow as the program grows. So if lawmakers, let’s say, approve $8 billion for the program next session, which could happen, then the contract can become more lucrative over time.”
On the state side, the contract with Odyssey will be overseen by the comptroller’s office, currently led by acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock.
“He was hired into the comptroller’s office and then essentially stepped up to replace the previous comptroller, Glenn Hegar, who went to the A&M system,” Yu said. “Hancock was most recently a state senator. He was in the Legislature when they passed the school of choice legislation.
“He’s from North Texas. And while he was there, he chaired Senate finance. So you know, he worked with the state budget a lot. And the comptroller’s office generally oversees our state system of taxes and accounting.”
Yu said Texans can look to programs that Odyssey runs in other states — including Georgia, Iowa and Louisiana — but there is also a lot of variation between those states’ programs.
» MORE: School vouchers, proposed in Texas, are mostly used by the wealthy in Arizona
“The key thing to watch will be demand. How many families want this program?” Yu said. “It’s sort of capped at around 100,000 children. And some states have had very little demand. And some states have seen huge surges of demand where not everyone is able to get a spot.”
Yu said parents should expect to be able to apply at the start of the year, and most people should have an answer sometime in the spring on whether they’re going to be receiving these funds.
“Generally, if you’re looking to send your kid to private school through the program, that ESA or voucher is going to be worth around $10,000,” Yu said. “For homeschoolers, and right now for people who are looking to send kids to pre-K through the program, that’s $2,000. So it’s a smaller ESA amount.
“And then for special education, you know, depending on the intensity of care needed for a given child, that can be worth up to $30,000.”
