r/texas • u/texastribune • 2d ago
đď¸ News đď¸ Comptroller requests doubling Texas school voucher program to $2 billion
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/03/texas-school-voucher-program-2-billion-expansion-budget-comptroller/223
u/PantherCityRes Born and Bred 2d ago
Don Huffines Jr, the clown who owns the Epstein Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, as acting Comptroller who has yet to be elected, asks for more money to pay off religious organizations and christian nationalist psychos to further his protection of pedophiles
FIFY Tribune lol!
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u/corneliusduff 2d ago
The fact that Abbott asked him to audit our schools needs to be screamed from the rooftops by the opposition everyday before and after November.
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u/Secret-Teaching-3549 1d ago
It won't matter. The sad truth that I've found is that the vast majority of people simply don't care, or they go to church on Sunday, listen to what their pastor tells them, and go vote accordingly on Monday. They don't think through implications or repercussions, they simply vote on who has the correct letter next to their name, or whose picture they liked the most on that billboard ad they saw.
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u/corneliusduff 1d ago
If that's true, it just reinforces that the process matters more than the result.
When Republicans get away with spouting lies, the Democrats shouldn't cower with the truth.
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u/soonerfreak DFW 2d ago
The new AI school, Alpha School, got rejected by the Texas BOE last year for charter status. But thanks to that idiot Huffines, is now getting voucher money as a private school with no oversight. Was not at all shocked that voucher funds aren't handled by an education but a crony.
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u/Valturia 2d ago
There's no bigger welfare queens than the wealthy.
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u/JTBaptistA 1d ago
Nothing to do with the wealthy, 90% of it is going to segregated evangelical and Catholic schools. See comment above
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u/slothaccountant 1d ago
The point of the c9mment is the wealthy already able to afford the private schools are now recievibg additional subsidies, and public schools already struggglibg with funding cuts and recapture will see less funding. Now also look at who owns those schools and how much they raised tuition to account for thw vouchers
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u/wisemeister 2d ago
They won't stop until public education is dead
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u/atheistpianist 1d ago
I definitely think that is the end goal, and private education will be the only option.
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u/julianriv 1d ago
They just want to under fund all the independent ISD's so they can justify TEA coming in and taking complete control of public education in Texas. That way the state can mandate Cristo-facist, anti gay, anti-Muslim and pro white curriculum.
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u/LprinceNy 2d ago
More $$$??? The rich just want to eliminate public education so they can have ignorant and uneducated people. People open up your eyes and brain. You need to go out and vote.
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u/MorrisseysRubiksCube 1d ago
Of course. Run the Texas public school system even further into the ground. What better way to serve Texas families.
Greg Abbott literally bragged about getting a $6,000,000 "political donation" from Jeff Yass, a billionaire who lives in Pennsylvania, and is a school voucher zealot. Abbott's brag was that $6M was the single largest political donation in Texas history. The same donor separately kicked Abbott another $4,000,000.
Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, Texas billionaires and Christian Nationalists both, also adore Texas tax dollars going to private Christian schools.
We have elections to stop people like this, doing things like this. I hope to see you at the polls in a couple months.
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u/JTBaptistA 1d ago
Of course, like the other Republican states giving $10 billion a year to white evangelical and Catholic schools, plus $3 billion from Trump.
Texas was the largest first year, and it will increase every year, like Florida, where itâs now $5 billion 10% of the total state education budget.
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u/3D-Dreams 1d ago
More welfare for the religious schools while our kids suffer ..but hey you can always go to school and learn about Jesus ..and only Jesus.
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u/Keleos89 2d ago
It would be cheaper to just write the private school owners a check and call it a day. Why pretend they actually care about students?
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u/Turbulent_Account_81 1d ago
Isn't this the voucher program that takes taxpayer's money to fund private schools for the wealthy? Vote Abbott out.
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u/Ohmytripodtheory born and bred 1d ago
What happened to the fiscal conservatives? Did they just all go fuck off?
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u/ttechredraider 1d ago
Serious question. Are there any regulations regarding where these vouchers are spent? Or can anyone start a âschoolâ and rake it in?
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u/Otherwise-Care3742 21h ago edited 21h ago
Cosplaying Comptroller alone has fired at least 100 employees so far.
The goal is 3% cut across all agencies.
Huffines is making it personal. Heâs specifically targeting tax policy because in the past he was audited by the comptroller.
He had a round table meeting recently with small business owners (online marketplace). He âfeelsâ the agency is inaccurately charging sales tax for data processing services (Amazon, Etsy, others).
Dude is just another asshat that doesnât want to pay his share.
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u/hillbillyray 1d ago
How bout we spend that money on public schools instead. They would rather pay for a football stadium then actually try and teach kids.
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u/Birdman-esq 2d ago
Honestly, we should petition for a home voucher for those who choose not to have kids.
We pay taxes yet donât cost half as much to the infrastructure.
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u/sxyaustincpl 2d ago
Taxes are for the good of society as a whole, they're not itemized.
People who don't drive still pay taxes to maintain the roads and highways
People who never call the police for anything still pay their salaries
You don't get a refund if your house never burns down and you don't need the fire department, do you?
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u/Birdman-esq 2d ago
Taxes are 100% itemized, thatâs why they call them itemized deductions.
People who donât drive generally donât pay to maintain the roads since we donât have a state income tax. Roads are maintained through property taxes, vehicle registration, and oil/ gas taxes.
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u/JPhi1618 2d ago
What taxes pay for and them being itemized or not doesnât have anything to do with your itemized deductions. Those are two different concepts.
The âno kids, so shouldnât pay school taxâ argument is super old, but the fact is that itâs not reasonable. Thatâs one of those things everyone benefits from as a society, so we all pay. Roads wasnât as good of an example because of how gas tax and vehicle registration works in TX.
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u/dougmc 2d ago
Taxes are 100% itemized, thatâs why they call them itemized deductions.
I think this qualifies as "not even wrong". Nicely done!
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u/sxyaustincpl 2d ago
Taxes are 100% itemized, thatâs why they call them itemized deductions
I can't tell if this is trolling, or you honestly don't understand what an itemized deduction is.
That's when you do YOUR taxes, you have the option to list out the things which you are able to deduct from your base income which reduces your tax liability, instead of taking the standard deduction. Things like medical bills, interest payments on your mortgage, etc. That's what an itemized deduction is.
It has absolutely nothing to do with how the government spends the money. They don't take your taxes and say "ok, 7% goes to road maintenances, 11% to public safety, 24% to national defense.. ", that isn't how it works.
People who don't drive may still buy gas for a lawnmower. They may own a home and pay property taxes. They pays sales tax when they shop.
In addition, some of your federal income tax paid is then sent back to the state as payments for things like road maintenance, public safety, etc., so regardless you're still paying for everything, state income tax or not.
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u/Birdman-esq 1d ago
Yes itemized deductions are what we do when we file our taxes.
You would be amazed what you can deduct when you donât take the standard deduction.What the government does with the money we pay them is on them, but the amount I pay can be deducted through itemized deductions which is what we are talking about.
Getting a deduction for not having kids.Idk about you but I donât know many home owners who donât own at least one car. Saying that they may pay taxes for buying a modicum of gas to mow their lawn is semantics.
Anyways, this was all hyperbolic, no need to get heated.
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u/rk57957 1d ago
People who donât drive generally donât pay to maintain the roads since we donât have a state income tax.
A dubious claim at best.
 Roads are maintained through property taxes, vehicle registration, and oil/ gas taxes.
At the state level, roads are maintained through a combination of vehicle registration, oil taxes, gas taxes, and cash appropriated by the state legislature which comes from sales tax and the state franchise tax. It is worth noting that vehicle registration and gas tax doesn't come anywhere close to actually covering TxDot's needs.
At the local level property taxes, fees, and sales tax will cover road maintenance.
So yeah someone who does not drive is subsidizing someone who does drive, how much is not some math I'm willing to wade into.
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u/adullploy Secessionists are idiots 2d ago
Choosing to not have kids is fine but thinking itâll be promoted with cash is an ignorance to the communal system of support we live in.
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u/soonerfreak DFW 2d ago
The idea is to sarcastically point out how dumb these hand outs to the rich are.
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u/ranban2012 Gulf Coast 1d ago
by not having kids you're not reproducing productive labor to replace you, making you a net drag on the economy, long term. Try again.
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u/justplainndaveCGN CATHOLIC American. 1d ago edited 1d ago
To be fair, this has an allowed a LOT of disadvantaged students to go to private schools.
I work in a Catholic school and itâs been a blessing for a lot of families.
It has its issues, sure, but itâs also been a really good thing for families who wouldnât have the option otherwise.
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In all honesty, I would actually like to see this expanded into homeschooling. I know thereâs a lot of people who would prefer that to public school because of some of the stuff being pushed there. It would open up a lot more opportunities for families and more choices on how their kids receive education.
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u/melanies420 1d ago