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When Sadaf Siddiqui heard that Texas was getting a private school voucher program, her first feeling was excitement. Her eldest of three children had attended Renaissance Academy, an Islamic pre-K-12 school in North Austin, until the private school’s tuition became too much of a financial burden for the family.
The month of Ramadan runs through March 19, and now attending public school, Siddiqui’s children must get a classroom pass for their afternoon prayers. Some Muslim families prefer Islamic schools where such traditions are widely practiced, Siddiqui said. “Everything they need is given to them,” she continued. “Prayer times are allotted, they don’t have to go to the cafeteria, they’re not the only ones who are fasting.” The over-$10,000 voucher would completely cover tuition at Renaissance Academy – all of her children could return to the family’s school of choice. But when Siddiqui tried to apply, she realized that neither Renaissance or Austin Peace Academy, Austin’s two Islamic private schools, are approved to accept vouchers next school year. “I see other faith-based schools on the list, but no Islamic schools. … It’s just disappointing,” she said. “I see my friends and neighbors choosing other private schools, they are able to enroll their children where they want to, but Muslim families are not able to.”. And the vouchers, managed by acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock’s office, have seen indubitable enthusiasm: Although the $1 billion in approved funding will only be able to accommodate about 100,000 students next school year,have come from families whose children are not currently enrolled in public schools. Many of the Austin-area private schools approved to accept vouchers are Christian, Catholic, or Jewish. Veritas Academy in South Austin, whose website encourages families to apply for a TEFA voucher, offers a “ But as of March 9, with one week until applications close, zero Islamic schools have been approved to accept the vouchers statewide. Renaissance Academy is accredited by Cognia, an When Jawad Rasul’s family moved to Austin from Georgia four years ago, they also enrolled their four children at Renaissance Academy. Rasul, who is also a local imam for the Muslim community, says they pay around $27,000 a year for their kids’ tuition. “Our goal is that our kids get an excellent education that meets national and Texas standards, or even excels them,” Rasul said. “We want our kids to be excellent and upright citizens of the nation and of the state while holding on to the values and morals that Islam teaches as well.” He has already submitted the TEFA application for his kids, hoping Renaissance will get approved even as March 17 looms closer. Renaissance has applied to the TEFA program but has not yet been approved, Rasul said, but they encouraged parents to apply for a voucher just in case. The school did not respond to thefrom Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office on whether private schools accredited by Cognia are legally disqualified from the TEFA program, citing that Cognia-accredited TEFA applicants had previously hosted events for the Muslim nonprofit organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations .to end CAIR operations in Texas. In January, the A.G. confirmed the comptroller’s authority to exclude schools at his discretion. “Let me be crystal clear: Texans’ tax dollars should never fund Islamic terrorists or America’s enemies,” Paxton said in a On March 2, Mehdi Cherkaoui, a Muslim parent of two students at Houston’s Qur’an Academy Spring, filed aclaiming the exclusion of Islamic schools from the TEFA program amounts to “religious discrimination” and violates the First and 14th amendments, naming Paxton, Hancock, and Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath as defendants. Due to pending litigation, TEFA did not offer a response when reached for comment, nor verify whether Islamic schools are being excluded in particular. “The exclusion of Muslim families from the TEFA program is part of the wave of anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry that we’re seeing in Texas politics,” Imran Ghani, director of CAIR-Houston, told thethat some of their accredited schools have now been invited to participate in the TEFA program and encouraged other schools to check their eligibility with the comptroller’s office. Cognia did not reply to clarify which schools are now approved. But for Austin parents like Rasul, the message from Texas’ top elected officials is already clear: that “Muslims are not welcome in Texas,” he said. “The state is discriminating against us due to our faith, and I don’t understand what their reasoning is.” “This is a very heartbreaking situation where on one hand, you hear that we’re all Texans,” Rasul continued. “We have freedom of religion and the freedom of choice. And then on the other hand, we are being discriminated against in this way.” has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.Sammie Seamon is a news staff writer at the Chronicle covering education, climate, health, development, and transportation, among other topics. She was born and raised in Austin , and loves this city like none other. She holds a master’s in literary reportage from the NYU Journalism Institute and has previously reported bilingually for Spanish-language readers.
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