Texas families now have at least another two weeks to apply for the state’s new school voucher program after a federal judge in Houston ordered an extension on Tuesday — hours before the application window was set to close — according to the lead attorney for several of the plaintiffs who sued state officials over the exclusion of Islamic schools from the program.
U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett ordered the deadline be extended from midnight Tuesday until March 31 amid an ongoing legal battle between Texas officials and a group of Muslim parents and Islamic private schools, said Eric Hudson, an attorney for the plaintiffs. Hudson said the judge also scheduled a permanent injunction hearing for April 24 and that the Texas comptroller’s office, which is administering the $1 billion program, must ensure two Islamic schools — plaintiff Excellence Academy and the Houston Quran Academy in Katy, where another plaintiff’s child goes to school — receive registration links to submit applications within 24 hours.
Hudson said the plaintiffs’ immediate goal was to make sure the application window didn’t shut parents out from Texas Education Freedom Accounts as a lottery system is being implemented because demand for the program has extended state funding. The longer-term goal, Hudson said, is to ensure Islamic schools can participate along with other private and parochial schools in Texas…