Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
AUSTIN - No educational entity can lawfully provide foreign terrorist organizations with material support, states an opinion issued by Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Last month, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock requested an opinion concerning the eligibility of certain private schools to participate in the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program.
The request states that recent findings have raised significant legal and taxpayer protection concerns.
First, potential TEFA applicants accredited through the TEPSAC-approved agency Cognia are based at an address that have hosted publicly advertised events organized by the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations, which Gov. Greg Abbott formally designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
Second, Hancock says another Cognia-accredited school may be owned or controlled by a holding group linked to foreign adversaries seeking influence over U.S. education, specifically, an adviser to the Chinese communist government.
“The people of Texas deserve the highest assurance that no taxpayer dollars will be used, directly or indirectly, to support institutions with ties to a foreign terrorist organization, a transnational criminal network, or any adversarial foreign government,” the request states.
Issued on Jan. 24, Paxton’s legal opinion confirms the full, exclusive statutory authority of the Comptroller’s Office to prohibit schools from TEFA participation under the “other relevant law[s]” provision of Senate Bill 2.
For example, any educational institution violating laws barring it from providing material support to a designated terrorist organization would be ineligible for the program under the “other relevant law[s]” provision.
“Let me be crystal clear: Texans’ tax dollars should never fund Islamic terrorists or America’s enemies,” said Paxton. “The Comptroller’s Office has always possessed exclusive authority under the TEFA framework to stop any school illegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries from accessing taxpayer dollars, and this opinion affirms that authority.
“There is no question that the Comptroller’s Office is statutorily charged with ensuring that our school choice program is protected from abuse by terrorists or the Chinese Communist Party.”
Public reporting has also noted that the approval for eligibility for certain Christian and private schools that are unrelated to this opinion has been delayed. The statutory authority to make such determinations, including on the timing of the approval process, rests solely with the Comptroller’s Office—not the Office of the Attorney General.
Opinion No. KP-0509
