Comptroller race turns on the $1 billion voucher fund and Huffines' request to double it

The next Texas comptroller will oversee the state's new school voucher program, and the four candidates on the Nov. 3 ballot disagree sharply on how fast it should grow, KERA News reports.

The comptroller, the state's chief financial officer, runs the $1 billion Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, which pays for private schooling or home schooling. The state received more than 274,000 requests for the money, and more than 100,000 students received funds before the program reached its cap.

The incumbent's request

Republican Don Huffines, a former Dallas-area state senator, was appointed comptroller by Gov. Greg Abbott this spring after beating acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock in the March primary. In his budget request for the 2028-29 biennium, Huffines asks lawmakers for an additional $1 billion, which would push the program past double its current size.

Huffines did not respond to KERA's interview requests. He told the Texas Tribune in April that he reads the law as requiring him to include everyone on the waiting list in his budget request, though legislators are not obligated to fund it. "We see the demand right now," he said then.

The challengers

Democratic state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of the Austin area said a new program should run at least a year before anyone talks about doubling it. "You want to see what the results are," she told KERA. She described the job as reporting to lawmakers who benefited from state spending and leaving it to the Legislature to decide whether the program worked.

Green Party candidate Shehla Faizi, an Irving podcaster and mother, said the money would have been better spent on public schools and that the comptroller's role is to show where the money goes. Libertarian V. Alonzo Echavarria-Garza did not respond to KERA's interview requests.

How results get judged

Jim Hamill, of SMU's Cox School of Business, told KERA that state data show 70% of recipients already had children in private school or home school, so he expects surveys of participating families to favor the program. Brent Boyea, who teaches political science at UT Arlington, said the office's core job is estimating state revenue and certifying that the budget has money to cover spending.

Early voting ends Friday, Oct. 30.

Sources

houstonpublicmedia.org

The Texas Tribune