A Muslim parent is suing Texas leaders, alleging discrimination against Islamic private schools in the state's private school voucher program. The suit, filed on behalf of two children attending a Houston private school, challenges the exclusion based on religious affiliation. This follows a request from Texas Comptroller to exclude schools with ties to certain organizations. The new law, effective in 2025, allows families to use public funds for private or home-school education.
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, filed March 1 by a parent acting on behalf of two children who attend a Houston private school, asks the court to block the voucher program from discriminating on the basis of religion. The suit names Texas Attorney Generalinto law in 2025, which authorized the creation of a statewide program that allows families to use public funds to pay for their children’s private school or home-school education.to participate. Private schools interested in joining the program can apply on a rolling basis, as long as they have existed for at least two years and received accreditation.requested an opinion from Paxton, asking if he could exclude schools from the voucher program based on their connections to groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations or foreign adversaries. Hancock said schools associated with the accreditation company Cognia had hosted events organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Gov. Greg Abbott recently designated a terrorist organization. CAIR has sued Abbott over the label, calling it defamatory and false. The U.S. State Department has not designated the organization a terrorist group.during primary election season. Hancock, appointed by the governor on an interim basis, is running to serve a full term as comptroller. Hancock shut hundreds of Cognia-accredited schools out of the voucher program, including those that primarily serve Muslim students, Christian students and children with disabilities, which the Houston Chroniclein January stating his belief that Hancock has the authority to block certain schools from participating in the program if they are “illegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries.” To date, no Islamic schools are known to have been accepted into the state voucher program. The comptroller’s office said it began inviting groups of Cognia schools that it considers in compliance with the law to participate, though it is unclear what that review entails.Hancock to administer the program in a manner “neutral, transparent and consistent with the law and to immediately cease discriminatory and exclusionary practices that single out certain communities without lawful justification.”Mehdi Cherkaoui, a Muslim father of two children and lawyer representing himself in the lawsuit, argued that state leaders “have systematically targeted Islamic schools for exclusion.” The Islamic schools blocked from joining the program meet the voucher program’s eligibility requirements and “have no actual connection to terrorism or unlawful activity,” the lawsuit states. That includes Houston Qur’an Academy Spring, a private school attended by Cherkaoui’s two children. Cherkaoui pays almost $18,000 per year in tuition for his children at the Houston private school and wants to apply for the nearly $10,500 per child in voucher funding to offset those costs, according to the lawsuit. But with Islamic schools blocked from participating in the program, the suit says, Cherkaoui cannot complete the application. “The exclusion is not based on individualized findings of unlawful conduct by any specific school, but rather on categorical presumptions that Islamic schools are suspect and potentially linked to terrorism by virtue of their religious identity and community associations,” the lawsuit states. The lawsuit names Hancock, the comptroller, because of his role overseeing the program; Paxton, the attorney general, because of his legal opinion backing Hancock; and Morath, the education commissioner, because his agency works with the comptroller’s office on certain program conditions. Morath does not oversee private schools in Texas, but schools in the voucher program must receive accreditation from organizations recognized by his agency or the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission. Before the voucher program’s March 17 deadline for family applications, the lawsuit asks that the court require the state to accept all Islamic schools that meet program requirements and prevent the state from delaying or denying approval based on schools’ religious identity, alleged “Islamic ties,” or “generalized associations with Islamic civil-rights or community organizations absent individualized, adjudicated findings of unlawful conduct.”San Antonio blood donations needed after Austin mass shooting impacts inventoryWar in Middle East leaves San Antonio family trapped in IsraelGet ready for election day in Bexar County- What are the big races happening?Iranian ballistic missile attacks strike heart of Tel AvivSan Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones censured in historic firstSan Antonio's Animal Care Services is trying to track down a cat with a jar stuck on its headDennis Quaid greets the crowd at President Trump's rallyWoman brutally attacked by husband who killed daughter, attacked other child gives impact statementAvery Everett is in Corpus Christi ahead of President Donald Trump’s expected visit on FridayThe high for Feb. 26, 2026, was 93 degrees making Thursday the hottest February day since 1996!Neighbor, police still haunted by unsolved murder of woman on East SideNew West Side thrift store supports at-risk shelter animals
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