Texas Parents & The New Texas Education Freedom Accounts Program

As the State of Texas prepares the launch for the 2026-27 school year of the Lone Star State’s first education savings account (ESA) program, a report by Texas Southern University’s Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center provides a window from which to view and better understand Texas parents’ opinions and attitudes regarding the state’s Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program. The report explores Texas parents’ familiarity with the TEFA program, their agreement with the decision by the Texas Legislature to create it, and the likelihood that they will apply for a TEFA for their children.

Texas parents are evenly split between those who are familiar (47%) and unfamiliar (53%) with the TEFA program.  This includes nearly a third (31%) of parents who report that they are not at all familiar with the TEFA program.

After being provided background information on the TEFA program, notably more Texas parents agree (56%) than disagree (44%) with the Texas Legislature’s decision to create the TEFA program this past spring, with Latino (62%) and Black (60%) parents significantly more likely than White (41%) parents to agree with this decision. Dr. Michael O. Adams, the founding director of the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University, highlighted however, that “there is a stark partisan divide among White parents, with more than three-fifths of White Republican parents, but less than one-fifth of White Democratic parents, supportive of the passage of the TEFA legislation.”

Two-fifths (40%) of these parents are either very (19%) or somewhat (21%) likely to apply for a TEFA for their child/children when the application portal opens.  Notably higher proportions of Black (47%) and Latino (45%) parents than White parents (28%) are likely to apply for a TEFA.  And, more than twice (61% vs. 29%) as many parents with a household income below $65,000 than with a household income of $65,000 or more report they are very or somewhat likely to apply for a TEFA.

The top three reasons listed by the 40% of parents who are likely to apply for a TEFA for why they are likely to apply are that a TEFA would provide their child with access to a better education (58%), allow them to send their child to the school that best meets the child’s needs (54%), and allow them to send their child to a school which best reflects their family’s values (44%).

Among the 60% of parents who are unlikely to apply for a TEFA, the most common reason why they are unlikely to apply is that they are happy with their child’s current public school (51%), followed by the TEFA funds not being enough to cover private school tuition (39%) and that they don’t think their family is eligible to receive a TEFA (28%).

Close to half (46%) of Texas parents who have a child with a physical, developmental, emotional or learning disability are either very likely (22%) or somewhat likely (24%) to apply for a TEFA for their child with a disability.

The full report can be found via this link. The representative survey of 900 Texas parents of children in prekindergarten through the 12th grade upon which the report is based was conducted between October 28 and November 3, 2025, in English and Spanish. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 3.27%.