Texas excluded Islamic schools from voucher program, lawsuit says
Source: USA Today
April 11, 2026, 6:02 a.m. ET
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 governments list of designated foreign terrorist organizations.
Nevertheless, Abbotts 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. Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR's national deputy director, condemned what he described as Abbott and DeSantis' political stunts in an interview with USA TODAY. There is no Texas exception of the First Amendment, he said.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/04/11/texas-florida-school-voucher-first-amendment/89487107007/
REFERENCES
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143626936
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143632912
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143634398
eppur_se_muova
(42,035 posts)Vouchers are for Jeebuz' people !
AZJonnie
(3,756 posts)Norrrm
(5,179 posts)Republican Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers
https://www.dailykos.com/blogs/CajsaLilliehook
wolfie001
(7,764 posts)Because they're christo-fascist pigs.
Skittles
(171,981 posts)always fun watching people of one religion demonizing another
BurnDoubt
(1,774 posts)EVIL to begin.
The whole thing came about so Christo- Fascists could establish their own Madrasas and teach their own versions of Science and History and groom the succeeding generations of Christo-Fascists.
None of this helps.
fujiyamasan
(1,809 posts)What the fuck happened to this country?