Fewer than 1,500 students in the Coastal Bend have received state funds to pay for private school education and home school costs.
The Texas Comptroller's Office shared an annual report on the first year of the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program on Aug. 3.
Statewide, applications totaled about 274,000. More than 248,000 students were eligible. Of those, more than 122,000 were chosen for awards. But only 85,344 had opted in and received funds as of July 29.
Few are from Corpus Christi, according to parent-reported data. While only 1,444 participants came from the Coastal Bend region, as defined by the area served by the Education Service Center Region 2, other regions counted more than 10,000 participants, including Houston, Richardson, Fort
Worth and San Antonio.
Neighboring Region 1, which includes Edinburg, counted over 3,200 participants.
Close to 770 participating students reported they lived in the Corpus Christi Independent School District. That's a few dozen fewer district residents than were awarded funds earlier this year.
This total includes students who were already attending a private or home school.
Here's a breakdown of how many participants reported living in other Coastal Bend school districts:
- Tuloso-Midway: 66
- Beeville: 59
- Rockport-Fulton: 59
- Calallen: 57
- Flour Bluff: 47
- Kingsville: 47
- Robstown: 44
- Alice: 40
- Gregory-Portland: 33
Statewide, of the 29,414 eligible applicants with disabilities and an annual income of at or below 500% of the federal poverty level, only 20,700 were funded as of July 29. These students were prioritized in the program's first tier.
An additional 12,800 funded participants are siblings of a first-tier participant.
Out of 79,652 eligible tier two applicants (children with household income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level), 51,800 were funded.
Only a handful of children from households with an annual income of between 200% and 500% of the federal poverty level were funded.
Olivia Garrett reports on education and community news in South Texas. Contact her at olivia.garrett@caller.com.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Few Corpus Christi students funded by Texas school voucher program
