Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

KELLY HANCOCK: Texas Taking Stand Against Foreign Terrorist Schools

Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour

National School Choice Week celebrates the power of empowering parents. Texas is leading this movement at an unprecedented scale, launching the largest first-year school choice program in American history. But as we approve providers to receive tax-funded Texas Education Freedom Accounts, we’re drawing a clear line: schools with ties to terrorist organizations or foreign adversaries will not be permitted to participate.

When I stepped in as Acting Texas Comptroller at the request of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, implementing Texas Education Freedom Accounts was one of my top priorities. This $1 billion program is leading the nation in empowering parents to choose the best educational path for their children. But this new freedom must never come at the expense of national security or taxpayer protection, and Texas will not stand idle while bad actors attempt to exploit it.

This is the same principle that led Texas to divest state pension funds from hostile regimes, secure the border with Operation Lone Star after Joe Biden refused, empower sheriffs to enforce immigration law with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and ban land purchases by foreign adversaries. Texans should never be forced to subsidize institutions that threaten our security or undermine our values. Now, that same fight has reached our classrooms.

The reality is some schools in Texas have documented ties to terrorist organizations, transnational criminal networks, and adversarial foreign governments. My office proactively identified troubling connections involving accreditation pipelines, shared facilities, and ownership or governance structures that raised significant legal, financial, and national security concerns.

In one case, potential education providers were accredited through an agency operating at an address that had hosted publicly advertised events organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations — formally designated by Abbott as both a foreign terrorist organization and a transnational criminal organization. In another case, a school appeared to be owned or controlled by a holding group linked to foreign adversaries seeking influence over American education, including an adviser connected to the Chinese Communist Party.

These circumstances directly implicate Texas laws restricting foreign ownership, control, and financial influence over sensitive institutions. As the CFO of Texas, I take my responsibility to steward the tax dollars of the eighth-largest economy in the world seriously. I will not allow one dime to be funneled to bad actors who are hostile to our country, undermine our values, or seek to do us harm.

Last month, I requested an expedited legal opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to confirm my authority under state law to stop taxpayer dollars from being provided — directly or indirectly — to these dangerous institutions. The Attorney General issued his opinion and agreed: my office has full authority to block schools with clear criminal ties from the Texas education freedom program.

As Acting Comptroller, my office continues to rigorously scrutinize every provider and vendor seeking access to Texas Education Freedom Accounts, while promptly approving those that meet the law’s requirements and keeping the program on track.

I’m happy to say we already have more than 1,300 schools and providers already cleared to participate, and parents can begin applying the first week of February. We’re on track for the inaugural launch of Texas education freedom serving up to 100,000 children during the upcoming school year.

The people of Texas deserve the highest assurance that their tax dollars will never support those who threaten our state or undermine our values. As Acting Comptroller and administrator of education freedom, I am committed to upholding that responsibility without delay, without apology, and without compromise.

Kelly Hancock is the Acting Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)