ESAs & Foreign Influence in Classrooms
Updated: 5 hours ago
Fully funding demand for TEFA would greatly benefit public education. As well would be taking an active hand in protecting classrooms from foreign influence.
Senate Committee on Education
The 89th Legislature passed Senate Bill 2, creating an education savings account (ESA) program for which all school-aged Texas children are eligible to apply. Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFAs) are funded at 85% of the estimated statewide average state and local funding per student, with an additional amount for a child with a qualifying disability based on the special education funding the child’s school district would receive, up to $30,000. Homeschooled students can receive up to $2,000. The 2026–27 school year is its first year of implementation. The program's launch appears to have gone smoothly for both families and education providers, especially given that this is the largest ESA program at launch in the nation’s history.
274,183 students applied for a TEFA and, as of August, 2026, more than 118,000 students have active awards. Applicants are sorted into tiers based on household income and disability status and granted TEFAs in priority order.
For the 2026–27 school year, all eligible applicants in Tier 1 and Tier 2 received awards, as did some in Tier 3. Much more information about the applicants and awardees can be found at the official TEFA website. The TEFA program is off to a strong start, and there steps the Legislature should take to expand and improve and it.
The waitlist of well over 100,000 children demonstrates both a dissatisfaction with the traditional public school status quo and a strong demand for alternative education options. These families, and any other families who might apply for a TEFA in the future, believe another setting would better serve their children. The state should fully commit to TEFA and ensure that every family that applies is approved.
The Legislature should examine the presence of “Confucius Classrooms” in public schools. These programs teach Chinese language and culture in K–12 schools and are the counterpart to Confucius Institutes on college campuses, which have long drawn criticism from conservatives and others because of their Chinese government influence.
In practice, public schools receive funding, instructional materials, and sometimes teachers through entities of the Chinese government. For example, Houston ISD, entered into a contract with Hanban, an entity affiliated with China’s Ministry of Education (that has since been reorganized and renamed), under which Hanban provided funding and materials, could choose and send Chinese guest teachers, and had authority over program funding. HISD would submit program plans and reports to Hanban. In 2017, there were ten HISD campuses hosting Confucius Classrooms.
The Legislature should prohibit public school districts and charter schools from contracting with entities that have ties to foreign adversaries. HB 2595 by Representative Cain and HB 4195 by Representative Leo-Wilson, both from the 89th legislative session, addressed this topic directly, and the Legislature should pass similar legislation this upcoming session.
Read the full testimony in the link above.
