Little Elm ISD lost 60 students to state vouchers this fall, a loss nonprofits put at about $492,000

Sixty students who had attended Little Elm ISD left the district this school year using the state's new voucher program, according to an analysis of state records by two education nonprofits.

The Texas Center for Voucher Transparency and Every Texan estimate that those departures could cost the district about $491,900 in state funding. The figures were published Friday by The Dallas Morning News, which said it checked the student counts with the Texas comptroller's office. They are a snapshot of students who had left by Aug. 10.

The 60 students equal about 0.75% of the district's enrollment of 8,036, according to the district-by-district table released with the analysis.

How the estimate was built

The nonprofits filed public records requests for the number of former public school students in each district who are now using Texas Education Freedom Accounts. Every Texan then applied a flat figure of $8,198.69 in lost state aid per student, calculated from statewide weighted daily attendance in the 2023-24 school year.

The News noted that the real amount for any one district can be higher or lower depending on attendance, student demographics and other factors.

Nearby districts

The same table lists these counts for neighboring districts:

• Lewisville ISD: 215 students, 0.45% of enrollment, about $1.76 million
• Frisco ISD: 259 students, 0.40%, about $2.12 million
• Denton ISD: 256 students, 0.77%, about $2.10 million
• Prosper ISD: 132 students, 0.42%, about $1.08 million

Across North Texas, the analysis counts at least 8,300 students who left more than 50 districts, for an estimated $68.8 million. The comptroller's office does not release counts below 30, so the exact number is unknown for four districts that had between one and 29 students leave, the News reported.

Two views of the money

"It's important that Texas families and taxpayers and lawmakers know that vouchers have a public school price tag," Dee Carney, director of the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency, told the News.

Nathan Cunneen, Texas state director of the American Federation for Children, called the idea of a loss misleading. He told the News that the Legislature set aside separate money for the program and that it "does not 'take' or utilize a single dollar of public-school funds."

Texas pays districts largely based on attendance, so fewer students generally means less state money.

The accounts provide $10,474 for private school tuition, $2,000 for homeschooling, and up to $30,000 for students with disabilities. The program cost about $1 billion in its first year, and the comptroller's office has asked lawmakers for another $2.3 billion to expand it when the Legislature meets in January.

The News' report did not include a response from Little Elm ISD.

Sources

The Dallas Morning News

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