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Texas’ chief financial officer on Monday named the organization that will help the state build the school voucher program lawmakers approved earlier this year.
Odyssey, a technology company, will work with the comptroller’s office, which oversees finances for all of Texas state government, to design the process through which Texas families can apply to receive thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds to cover their children’s private or home-schooling costs. Odyssey will also develop a system for those families to shop for educational products and pay tuition.
Applications for Texans to participate in the program are expected to open at some point early next year. The program, named “Texas Education Freedom Accounts,” will then launch at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year.
“We’re moving quickly to launch this program, keeping the end goal in sight every step of the way — giving parents the freedom to choose the best educational path for their children to reach their God-given potential,” said Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock in a statement. “This is about empowering families, expanding opportunity and making sure every child can learn in the environment that works best for them.”
The law that created the voucher program gives Odyssey tremendous responsibility, including raising awareness about the statewide initiative and managing complaints.
The law authorizes the state to provide the company up to 5% of the program’s $1 billion funding — $50 million — to administer it. That number could skyrocket by the year 2030, when legislative budget experts predict costs of the program to reach nearly $5 billion.
According to its website, Odyssey was created to help administer education savings accounts, a term that refers to a type of voucher program. Odyssey has also helped with the maintenance of similar programs in Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Utah and Wyoming, according to the comptroller.
The company in 2023 was awarded $500,000 in a contest founded by Janine and Jeff Yass, the Pennsylvania billionaire who donated a state record $6 million to Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign last year during his effort to unseat the Texas Republicans who had helped derail an earlier voucher proposal from becoming law. After winning the half-million-dollar award, Joseph Connor, Odyssey’s founder and CEO, applauded the Yass family for starting “an incredible movement to push for school choice and education freedom nationwide.”
In a statement Monday, Connor said the company is “thrilled” to work with the state in launching the voucher program.
“Having successfully served hundreds of thousands of students across the nation, we are ready to deliver a user-friendly and trustworthy platform that can ensure a seamless rollout,” Connor said.
Odyssey’s work in other states has not come without scrutiny. The company was sued in 2023 for “substantial material misrepresentations” during its bid to help administer Iowa’s voucher program, though a judge later dismissed the complaint. An audit of Idaho’s program, which Odyssey also helped run, identified up to $180,000 in ineligible, taxpayer-funded purchases. The company agreed to reimburse the state for the unauthorized transactions, along with nearly $500,000 it had collected from unspent federal funding for the program.
Odyssey was also subject to complaints from participating families in the program, including one who said it was “rife” with fraud, according to ProPublica. It later lost its contract in Idaho but told the news organization that the loss was due to being “undercut on price” and that the state’s decision to move on had “nothing to do with performance.”
Senate Bill 2, which authorized Texas’ voucher program, tasked the state’s finance chief with designing the program, allowing the office to select up to five organizations to help oversee that process.
Odyssey appears to be the only company chosen. The Texas Observer reported earlier this year that the company retained former Abbott chief of staff Luis Saenz to advocate for its interests during the 2023 and 2025 legislative sessions. The finance and technology company also hired Daniel Warner, a lobbyist and former policy adviser to former Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan, as its Texas state director.
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Great Job Texas Tribune, By Jaden Edison & the Team @ KSAT San Antonio Source link for sharing this story.
