Texas School Choice Meets a Hamas-Linked School in Garland
A Texas voucher eligibility fight is now testing whether school choice programs will actually police extremist curriculum and terror-linked networks.
A question Texas lawmakers did not expect to ask
Texas finally passed a major school choice program. Parents who have spent years watching public school bureaucracies fail their kids were told they would have more options. Good. They should.
But now one of the schools reportedly eligible for those funds is Brighter Horizons Academy in Garland, and the allegations surrounding it are not small, obscure, or easy to shrug off.
According to Texas Scorecard, citing a new Middle East Forum report, Brighter Horizons Academy was founded by figures tied to the Holy Land Foundation network, has reportedly received nearly $995,000 from the Iran-affiliated Islamic Development Bank, and uses instructional material that teaches contempt for non-Muslims. That is not a paperwork glitch. That is a giant red flag with fireworks attached.
If Texas is going to tell taxpayers that school choice means freedom and accountability, then accountability has to show up before the money does.
What the reporting says
Texas Scorecard reported that Brighter Horizons was recently added to the schools eligible for funds through Texas' Education Freedom accounts program. The outlet also cited Middle East Forum findings that the school is affiliated with the Islamic Services Foundation, a textbook publisher whose materials include lines such as this:
"Those who reject (truth), among the People of the Book and among the pagans, will be in the Hellfire, to stay there. They are the worst of creatures."
Middle East Forum went further, reporting that former and current personnel tied to Brighter Horizons or its curriculum network include individuals connected to the Holy Land Foundation case, Hamas-linked networks, and Islamist activism in the United States. The report names Rasmi Almallah, listed as a founder, as a former Holy Land Foundation board member and an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 terror financing trial.
Jewish Onliner, drawing on the same reporting and related documentation, also highlighted that Brighter Horizons reportedly employs a teacher identified as a niece of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and noted the school's alleged $995,000 in support from the Islamic Development Bank.
That is the story in plain English: Texas created a school choice lane for families, and a school facing serious allegations about terror-linked founders, extremist curriculum, and foreign funding may be standing in it.
School choice is worth defending. Which is exactly why this matters.
Here is where some people will try to get cute. They will say critics of this school are really critics of school choice itself. Nice try.
School choice is not the problem here. Weak vetting is.
Conservatives support school choice because parents, not bureaucrats, should decide where children are educated. But parental choice does not require the state to go brain-dead. Texas can champion educational freedom and still say taxpayer-supported benefits will not flow to schools with credible ties to terror networks, extremist indoctrination, or foreign influence operations.
In fact, if the state fails to draw that line, it hands the Left a political gift they did not earn.
Why this is such a big deal
The issue is not simply religious identity. It is alleged terror-linked personnel and extremist material.
The issue is not private education. It is whether public benefits are reaching institutions with serious national security concerns.
The issue is not whether Muslim families can choose schools. They can. The issue is whether Texas taxpayers should underwrite schools accused of teaching hatred and tied to individuals in Hamas-related networks.
The issue is credibility. If conservatives want school choice to last, the program has to survive obvious stress tests.
That last point matters most.
Because if a program cannot survive the sentence, "Maybe do not subsidize the school accused of teaching kids that non-Muslims are the worst of creatures," then somebody in Austin forgot to install common sense.
Abbott has already signaled where this should go
Jewish Onliner cited a March post from Gov. Greg Abbott stating, "There's no school choice for schools with ties to organizations that have connections to terrorism." That sounds like the correct instinct.
Good. Now make it operational.
Texas officials do not need another round of vague talking points. They need answers to straightforward questions:
Questions the state should answer immediately
Who approved Brighter Horizons for eligibility?
What vetting was done on founders, administrators, curricula, and funding sources?
Are state officials reviewing the Middle East Forum findings right now?
Will payments be paused while the allegations are investigated?
Are other schools in the program facing similar concerns?
You do not need a blue-ribbon panel and three years of consultant invoices to ask those questions.
The curriculum issue alone should trigger a review
Even if you set aside the terror-financing allegations for a moment, the curriculum issue should be enough to stop any reasonable person cold.
Middle East Forum reported that Islamic Services Foundation textbooks used by Brighter Horizons describe non-Muslims as "the worst of creatures," warn of hellfire for unbelievers, and include material emphasizing jihad. Texans do not have to pretend that is just harmless religious instruction. It is not.
Christian families in Texas are not asking for government help so their tax dollars can circle back into teaching children to despise them. Neither are Jewish families. Neither is anyone with a functioning moral compass.
Religious liberty is real. So is the government's duty not to subsidize sectarian hatred.
Those two truths can coexist just fine, unless somebody is determined to blur them.
Texas can fix this without abandoning school choice
The smart move here is not to panic and let the Left use one scandal to bury a good policy. The smart move is to clean house fast.
Texas should freeze eligibility for any school facing credible allegations of terror ties or extremist curriculum until a full review is complete. It should publish the review standards. It should disclose who was approved and why. And if the allegations are substantiated, the answer is simple: no public money, no eligibility, no excuses.
School choice is supposed to empower families, strengthen communities, and break the monopoly that failed so many kids. It is not supposed to become an open lane for institutions shadowed by terror-linked founders, Iran-connected funding, and curriculum that teaches contempt for unbelievers.
Texas has a chance to prove this program has guardrails. It should take it.
Because if the state cannot say no here, where exactly does it plan to say no?