Texas families can now apply for school vouchers. The state’s “school choice” Education Freedom Account program is live — the portal is open and applications are being taken.
But for many parents in rural Texas, the questions that matter most haven’t been answered.
Because the hard work of teaching children — and making sure every school has what it needs — is still falling on public schools. And there’s still no clear plan from the state about how to fix what’s broken.
Here’s what it looks like here at home.
In the 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle, there are only 12 private schools approved to take voucher money. Of those, just four teach kids from kindergarten through high school. And all but three of the approved schools are in Amarillo.
That’s important. In a lot of counties out here, there simply aren’t private schools near where people live. For most families in small towns, vouchers aren’t a choice they can use. They’re an idea — not something that makes a real difference in a kid’s day-to-day life.
This isn’t unique to the Panhandle. Across the state, 61% of Texas counties don’t have a single private school that takes vouchers. But the program is moving ahead without much talk about what that means for the places where the local public school is the only school.
Texas educates more than 5 million students. They live in big cities and tiny towns. They come from families with plenty of resources, and families trying to make ends meet. They have different needs, different languages, and different challenges.
The state has a duty — a responsibility — to make sure all of those students have a real shot at a good education.
That responsibility didn’t disappear when vouchers passed.
Every election cycle ought to be about how we make education better. Not by chasing the latest idea, but by fixing the real problems that keep classrooms from working the way they should.
Instead, education has become a political fight — and that fight has taken real solutions off the table.
In recent sessions, Gov. Greg Abbott spent a lot of time telling Texans public schools were failing. Test scores were pointed to. Headlines were made. That framing helped drive the voucher push.
Now vouchers are law, but education hasn’t become a central issue in the 2026 campaign. What we’re hearing now is mostly about things that have already happened — vouchers passed, funding shifted, boxes checked. The only big proposal left on the table is property-tax relief, not a plan to help schools teach better or children learn more.
What’s missing are the problems most rural schools are still dealing with every day:
• Getting and keeping teachers
• Funding schools with small enrollments
• Giving kids advanced classes or career training
• Fixing flaky internet service
• Helping students with mental-health needs
• Running long bus routes across wide counties
Vouchers don’t fix any of that. Not in small towns without nearby private schools. Not where families don’t have the time or money to drive kids to another county every day.
Vouchers don’t build new classrooms. They don’t hire teachers. They don’t fix roads or expand internet service. And when public schools lose money, there’s no backup plan waiting to take over.
This pattern — one-size-fits-all policies that don’t match the needs of local communities, years of taking away money and local control — is how Texas ended up with underfunded schools and uneven results in the first place.
The real tragedy in this plot is that the political fight over vouchers has also crowded out real conversations about education. Questions about school funding, teacher pay, special education services, and rural classroom needs have faded not because they’re solved, but because they’re uncomfortable.
That matters.
It’s also why a new project called the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency has formed. Their goal is simple: keep track of where voucher money goes, who’s using it, and whether the program is actually working. They’re building a public map of participating schools, collecting complaints from families about problems, and putting out reports so parents, taxpayers, and lawmakers can see what’s happening — not just hear promises.
Out here in rural places, we’ve seen again and again that good policy needs good information. People need facts they can check, not talking points.
Here’s the bottom line: Passing a law doesn’t answer the bigger question. The job of state government isn’t just to pass policy — it’s to make sure kids in every corner of Texas can learn and grow.
Until the focus returns to strengthening classrooms, supporting teachers, and fixing the real problems schools face, vouchers will mostly be a paper exercise for the majority of rural families.
The voucher portal may be open. But the work of educating Texas kids — all of them — is still not finished.
Suzanne Bellsnyder is editor and publisher of the Hansford County Reporter-Statesman and Sherman County Gazette. A former Capitol staffer with decades of experience in Texas politics and policy, she now focuses on how state decisions shape rural life through her newspapers and the Texas Rural Reporter. You can subscribe to the newsletter at www.TexasRuralReporter.Substack.com