Private schools looking to educate participating students may also have a chance to apply to the program before the end of the year.
Kindergarten and first grade students participate in a “putt-putt-palooza” workshop at Alpha School, a private school in Austin, on Sept. 9, 2025. Texas' school voucher program, which will allow families to apply for state funds to pay for their children's private schooling, could open the application process in February.
Texas families wanting to participate in the state’s upcoming school voucher program could apply as soon as February, while the application process for private schools hoping to join is set to launch before the end of the year. Those details were revealed in the state’s $52 million contract with New York-based finance and technology company Odyssey, which Texas’ chief financial officerto help design and manage the voucher program. The Texas Tribune and ProPublica reviewed the contract after filing an open records request following Odyssey’s appointment. Odyssey agreed to a “project work plan” that sets a tentative date of Dec. 2, 2025, for schools to register to become one of the options where families can spend funds awarded by the state. The agreement also set Feb. 4, 2026, as the date when it will start receiving parent applications; that window would remain open until mid-March. The company will design those processes, as well as the system parents will use to shop for educational products and pay tuition. The state could end up paying Odyssey up to $52 million for its services over the next four years — $26 million for the first two and an additional $26 million for another two if the contract gets renewed.allows the state to pay Odyssey up to 5% of the program’s $1 billion in funding, or $50 million, each year. That number could skyrocket over the next five years, when legislative budget expertsTexas’ voucher program will allow families to apply for thousands of dollars in public taxpayer dollars to fund their children’s private or home-school education. The comptroller’s office, which oversees finances for all of the state government, is responsible for oversight of the program. According to the documents obtained by the Tribune and ProPublica, the bidding process for Texas’ voucher program came down to three finalists: Odyssey,. ClassWallet and Student First Technologies offered their services to the state at a price tag of $79 million and $93 million, respectively. State law allows the comptroller to select up to five organizations to help manage the program, but it chose to only hire Odyssey.to Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign last year during his effort to unseat the Texas Republicans who helped derail an earlier voucher proposal from becoming law. After winning the half-million-dollar award, Joseph Connor, Odyssey’s founder and CEO,— to help Texas spread awareness about the program. That campaign is expected to launch at the end of the month.Disclosure: Vianovo has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a completeIndependent Texas reporting needs your support. The Texas Tribune delivers fact-based journalism for Texans, by Texans — and our community of members, the readers who donate, make our work possible. Help us bring you and millions of others in-depth news and information. Will you support our nonprofit newsroom with a donation of any amount?
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