The Christian Post reports the lawsuit was filed March 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and names Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who administers the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) voucher program, Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton and Education Commissioner Mike Morath as defendants.
The voucher program initially allocates $1 billion for eligible families to use public funds for private tuition, capped at 90,000 students, with priority for lower-income households and those with special needs.
Plaintiff Mehdi Cherkaoui, the father of two children attending Houston Qur'an Academy Spring, says the school meets all neutral statutory requirements for participation but has been blocked due to "impermissible religious gerrymanders" by Hancock and categorical presumptions related to "Islamic ties."
Hancock requested a legal opinion from Paxton in December on barring schools with alleged ties to Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) events or foreign adversaries. In January, Paxton affirmed the comptroller's authority under the measure's "other relevant law(s)" provision.
The Texas Tribune reports that there is another similar federal lawsuit brought forth on March 11 by three parents and three schools.
Daniel Greenfield is the CEO of the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
"I'm a big supporter of voucher programs. At the same time, there should be no bar on the state actually being able to provide funding through religious schools. You (also) want those schools to be not actively hostile to America," Greenfield states.
He says certain standards must be met if private or religious schools are getting money.
"This is something that I think should apply to schools that are overrun by the Left as well. You cannot support anti-American activity. You cannot support violence. You cannot support extremism, however you define it,” Greenfield states.
He gives two examples.
“You can't have the Church of Satan set up a school and preach that they're going to overthrow the United States government and eliminate the Constitution. Or you can't have Communists set up a school calling for the same things," Greenfield says.
