The Education Freedom Scholarship Program (EFS), also known as school vouchers, will be switching to a tiered distribution system for the upcoming school year to determine which students will receive the funds.
Per the law created by the act, if the number of applications received by the department of education (TDOE) exceeds the number of scholarships available for the respective school year, beginning with the 2026-27 school year the department must shift to a tiered priority order for awarding the scholarships.
This past school year the department gave out half of 20,000 vouchers worth over $7,000 based on need while the other half were distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. In the first two hours applications were open at the program’s launch, TDOE says they had 30,000 voucher applications.
The tiered structure therefore must take effect for next year, putting students who received the scholarship this year and reapply for next at the top of the list followed by those who qualify for free or reduced lunches, then an income-based tier with a higher income cap.
