Muslim families in Texas are asking: Does school choice include us?
A Houston-area father went to enroll his kids in Texas’ new school voucher program and discovered their school wasn’t on the list — along with every other Islamic school in the state. Texas launched one of the country’s largest school choice programs, promising families public funds for religious private schools, but roughly a hundred Muslim schools were excluded without official explanation. State officials have posted publicly about not funding schools tied to terrorist organizations, pointing to Gov. Greg Abbott’s designation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a foreign terrorist organization — a designation the federal government has not made. Now families are suing. Amanda Henderson talks with RNS reporter Fiona André and Editor-in-Chief Paul O’Donnell about the lawsuits, the communities affected and what this moment reveals about who “school choice” was really built for.
This transcript was created using AI tools and may contain minor transcription errors
AMANDA HENDERSON: From RNS and the Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture, this is Complexified, a podcast for the religiously curious and politically frustrated. I’m Amanda Henderson.
A program designed to help families send their kids to religious schools is now being accused of excluding one religion entirely. Earlier this year, Texas launched one of the largest school voucher-style programs in the country. The idea was simple: public funds that families can use to pay for private education, including religious schools. For years, supporters of these programs have argued that if the government offers money for education, it can’t exclude schools simply because they’re religious. But when the program opened and families began looking for their own schools, something strange start …