KELLY HANCOCK: Texas Taking Stand Against Foreign Terrorist Schools

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 identified troubling connections involving accreditation pipelines, shared facilities, and ownership or governance structures that raised significant legal, financial, and national security concerns.

In certain cases, potential applicant schools were hosting publicly advertised events with 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.