Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock is asking the Texas Attorney General’s Office whether certain schools can be excluded from Texas’ new school voucher program based on connections to a U.S. Muslim advocacy group or alleged ties to the Chinese government.
In a request for opinion filed to state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office on Dec. 12, Hancock asked whether schools could be excluded from the program if they were linked to a “foreign terrorist organization” or a “foreign adversary.” Hancock suggested schools that had hosted events for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group which Gov. Greg Abbott recently designated as a terrorist organization, would be affected.
CAIR is suing Abbott over the terrorist designation, claiming it was defamatory and not based in law.