Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to Cy-Fair ISD leaders Wednesday demanding that they cancel a sporting event with the Islamic Games of North America scheduled for later this year, citing alleged ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which Abbott recently declared a "foreign terrorist organization."   "You cannot invite such dangers through the front doors of our schools," he wrote. "Radical Islamic extremism is not welcome in Texas — and certainly not in our schools."  The move comes after the Dallas-area Grapevine-Colleyville ISD canceled a similar event on Tuesday, saying that they had learned that CAIR New Jersey was a sponsor of a related event at one point, according to news reports.  view article

Texas families will soon be able to access $1 billion in taxpayer dollars through education savings accounts, also known as school vouchers, to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, transportation and several other education-related costs.  Passed during the 89th legislative session, the state is calling the universal program Texas Education Freedom Accounts. Families can start applying Wednesday, Feb. 4.  The application portal closes March 17 with selected families getting funds for the 2026-27 school year. State officials estimate the first year of TEFAs will serve about 100,000 families, with awards averaging about $10,000. view article

Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a legal opinion on Saturday affirming that the Texas Comptroller’s Office has the "exclusive" authority to determine which private schools and education vendors are eligible to participate in the state’s new school choice program. view article

Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to Cy-Fair ISD leaders Wednesday demanding that they cancel a sporting event with the Islamic Games of North America scheduled for later this year, citing alleged ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which Abbott recently declared a "foreign terrorist organization."   "You cannot invite such dangers through the front doors of our schools," he wrote. "Radical Islamic extremism is not welcome in Texas — and certainly not in our schools."  The move comes after the Dallas-area Grapevine-Colleyville ISD canceled a similar event on Tuesday, saying that they had learned that CAIR New Jersey was a sponsor of a related event at one point, according to news reports.  view article

Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to Cy-Fair ISD leaders Wednesday demanding that they cancel a sporting event with the Islamic Games of North America scheduled for later this year, citing alleged ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which Abbott recently declared a "foreign terrorist organization."   "You cannot invite such dangers through the front doors of our schools," he wrote. "Radical Islamic extremism is not welcome in Texas — and certainly not in our schools."  The move comes after the Dallas-area Grapevine-Colleyville ISD canceled a similar event on Tuesday, saying that they had learned that CAIR New Jersey was a sponsor of a related event at one point, according to news reports.  view article

Hundreds of private schools have been shut out of Texas’ new school voucher program while the state comptroller’s office awaits a decision in its bid to block some Islamic and allegedly Chinese-linked institutions.  Nearly all schools accredited by Cognia, the largest private school accreditor in Texas, have been unable to submit applications in the month since the state began accepting them. As of Tuesday, only 30 of the 600 schools accredited solely by the nonprofit were added to the list of approved vendors, most of them offering only pre-K and kindergarten. The majority of those were added overnight on Monday, after Hearst Newspapers began inquiring about the issue. view article

pon signing school vouchers into law last May, Governor Greg Abbott pronounced that he had delivered “education freedom to every Texas family.” But the billion-dollar program, which opens to parents on February 4, has enrolled dozens of private schools that openly discriminate against Texas families on the basis of religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, according to a Texas Observer analysis of information gathered from the schools’ websites and handboos, and survey responses and phone calls with school leaders. The Observer gathered information about all 291 schools selected by the state that offer education beyond the kindergarten level. More than 90 percent are affiliated with or owned by a religious or faith-based group, the analysis found. More than 100 of those schools require or prioritize for admission students of the same faith, and more than 60 have a written policy that discriminates against LGBTQ+ students, the schools’ own data shows. view article

KOOTENAI COUNTY, Idaho — Moms answer other moms, especially when it involves their children and schools.  This story also appeared in Idaho Education News  Yet here it was, Election Day in the parking lot of Lakeland High School in North Idaho and Suzanne Gallus — a hyperorganized Republican mom who once homeschooled her seven children and is now a public-school advocate and school board campaign operative — was staring at her phone. Stunned. view article

The Texas group’s board, meanwhile, accepted the resignation Monday of Brendan Miniter, the superintendent who had steered it on a more independent course that clashed with the Arizona leadership. It was unclear if his departure was connected to the state probe. The board’s president, Shannon Sedgwick Davis, thanked him for his contributions but neither she nor other board members mentioned the investigation.  view article