Texas Awards First $400 Million In School Vouchers

CAPITAL Highlights 

State officials began sending out the first notices to families awarded education vouchers last week, the Houston Chronicle reported. In the first round, 42,644 qualified, mostly students with special needs who are considered the highest priority.

More than a quarter-million students have applied to the state’s voucher program, with a lottery determining who gets a spot. Initial funding for the program is $1 billion, and it is projected to support 100,000 students in its first year.

The program offers taxpayer money to help pay for private and homeschool education. The amount of each voucher awarded in the initial round varied, from $2,000 each for the 11,000 children applying for homeschool funding to an average of $15,585 for parents who documented their children’s special educational needs.

Smokable Hemp Ban Temporarily Blocked 

A ban on the sale of natural smokeable hemp products has been blocked, possibly until the end of April, by a Travis County district judge. A court hearing is set for this week.

The Texas Tribune reported that lawyers for the hemp industry argue that state agencies overstepped their constitutional authority by imposing new testing requirements that created a 0.3% total THC threshold. The industry says that effectively eliminated smokeable products by essentially rewriting the statutory definitions of hemp created by legislators in 2019.

While that 2019 law also limited THC levels to 0.3%, manufacturers got around it by cultivating hemp plants with another type of THC called THCA, which produces a high when ignited. The newly written limits on any type of THC mirror those that will be imposed by the federal government in November.

Appeals Court Rules For Ten Commandments in Classrooms 

A federal appeals court last week ordered public school districts to place copies of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Parents and a group of faith leaders in nine school districts sued over a 2025 law that requires public schools to post donated posters of the Ten Commandment in classrooms. By a split vote, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the law does not violate the U.S. Constitution, overturning a San Antonio federal judge’s ruling last year. The case could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Students are neither catechized on the Commandments nor taught to adopt them,” the judges wrote. “Nor are teachers commanded to proselytize students who ask about the displays or contradict students who disagree with them.”

Six judges on the appeals court dissented, with Judge Leslie H. Southwick writing that “S.B. 10 is facially unconstitutional under the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses.”