Even before the Texas Legislature finally passed its private school voucher bill earlier this year, the race was on among the handful of firms in the burgeoning voucher vendor sector to win the lucrative contract to launch and administer what will be the largest program of its kind in the nation.
That race is now over as the Texas Comptroller last month awarded the job to a New York firm called Odyssey. In winning the bid, and in its plans to ramp up the program, Odyssey cultivated close ties to the political world of Governor Greg Abbott.
One of the top outfits in the voucher vendor game, Odyssey is backed with major venture capitalist investments. As the Texas Observer previously reported, Odyssey and others pushed hard to win the Texas contract, essentially the industry’s holy grail.
