Bible before bucks. That is essentially the stance at Cypress Christian School, a highly rated private Christian campus in northwest Houston that hosted Gov. Greg Abbott for a pro-voucher rally in 2023. Despite that high-profile appearance, the school now says it will not participate in Texas’ new state education-savings program because leaders argue accepting public funds would threaten the school’s ability to enforce what they call “biblical rule.” The position surfaced in a private recording shared with families and obtained by reporters this year.
In a private video obtained and reported by the Houston Chronicle, Kris Hogan, the school’s director of culture, said the school’s bylaws require that parts of the school “be governed exclusively by biblical doctrine and scripture” and warned that the Texas Education Freedom Accounts would create “ongoing government entanglement” that the school could not accept. The school’s president, Jeff Potts, who holds a doctorate in education from Liberty University, had hosted Abbott for the March 2023 rally that promoted the voucher push, as reported by the Houston Chronicle.
The TEFA program was created by the Legislature in Senate Bill 2 and is being administered by the Texas Comptroller’s office as a state education-choice initiative funded with roughly $1 billion for its launch. According to the Comptroller, families accepted into TEFA are slated to receive about $10,474 per participating student for the 2026–27 school year, and the family application window opened Feb. 4 and runs through March 17, per the Texas Comptroller…