U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett on Tuesday ordered Texas’ school voucher portal to remain open and continue accepting applicants until March 31, the Associated Press reports.
The portal was set to close at midnight Tuesday.
The Houston judge made his ruling after four Muslim families in Texas filed a lawsuit alleging the state’s exclusion of Islamic schools violated the U.S. Constitution’s First and 14th amendment.
Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock excluded Muslim schools from participating in the program, citing a statement from his boss, Gov. Greg Abbott, alleging without hard evidence that some of the state’s Islamic campuses had ties to foreign terrorist organizations, the Texas Tribune reports.
The judge’s ruling comes as more than 200,000 families have already applied to Texas’ school voucher program as of press time.
Under the program, accepted applicants will receive a $10,000 coupon to help pay for private school tuition. However, the state has only allocated $1 billion to the program and has already exceeded available state funding.
The state’s voucher scheme has come under further scrutiny since 71% of applicants were already enrolled in private schools when they applied. That data casts doubt on claims by Abbott and other voucher advocates that the program will save middle and low-income kids from failing public schools.
Indeed, an analysis of available data by the Current also found that the majority of voucher applicants in San Antonio reside in higher-income neighborhoods.
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