Texas excluded Islamic schools from voucher program, lawsuit says

Efforts by state officials in Texas and Florida are raising questions − and triggering lawsuits − over whether their taxpayer-funded school voucher programs discriminate against Islamic schools in violation of the First Amendment.

Both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, as a foreign terrorist organization. CAIR has long rejected such characterizations, and it is not on the federal government’s list of designated foreign terrorist organizations.

Nevertheless, Abbott’s administration has used the designation to justify excluding, at least temporarily, certain Islamic private schools from its voucher program on the basis of their alleged affiliation with CAIR. DeSantis signed legislation barring private schools deemed to be affiliated with or influenced by a foreign terrorist organization into law on April 6.

Experts and CAIR representatives said the Abbott and DeSantis administrations have the burden of proving their allegations in court. If they can't provide evidence supporting their claims that certain Islamic schools are tied to terrorism, they said the efforts could amount to illegal religious discrimination.