School choice advocates seeking to get the word out about Texas Education Freedom Accounts are now working to educate educators on how the program can open opportunities for teachers to earn money outside of their day jobs.
TEFAs are voucher-like awards that families can use to pay for private school tuition and for education services like tutoring, therapy, curriculum, specialists and more.
“There’s a lot of opportunity,” said Zoe Alterman, speaking to a group of educators from across San Antonio during a teacher happy hour at Vibras on April 16. “It’s a very, very wide range of what is considered educational products.”
Alterman, a master social worker who’s worked as a teacher, nonprofit leader and tutor, is working with the School Discovery Network to guide teachers and educators through the vendor application process for the voucher program.
The portal opened for vendors who weren’t already working with the state under the Parent-Directed Special Education Services program in March. While the application window for students closed March 31, there is no deadline for vendors or private schools to apply under the TEFA program.
To be eligible, vendors should have no unpaid state business taxes, be “legit” businesses based in the U.S., be operating under something like a nonprofit or limited liability company, have sole proprietorship of names and offer educational products.
To fall under this last category, vendors need education licenses like teacher certifications or other qualifying credentials like speech-language pathology licenses and other specializations.
This category also extends to educators who’ve previously worked in higher education, even if they aren’t certified to teach K-12, a detail Marina “Red” Madden is especially excited about.
In attendance at the teacher happy hour, Madden was was a communications professor with UTSA, specializing in graphic design, user experience and digital advertising. After leaving the university in 2024, she freelanced as an instructional designer and recently launched her own company, Red Madden Higher Learning, providing training and instructional development and design for the “future of work.”
“I was seeing that education was going a little too automated and a little too digital autopilot, and so I really wanted to keep the human part in human education,” Madden said. “I am offering instructional design services and curriculum assessment.”
She hasn’t applied to be a vendor under the TEFA program yet, and she isn’t sure what her clients would look like, but she thinks there’s “a lot of great potential.”
Across the bar, Tessa Baden was furiously typing on her laptop, in the process of applying to be a vendor on the TEFA website. She works full-time as an education consultant for a large education nonprofit.
An early education specialist and a big advocate of nature- and play-based learning, Baden launched Tales with Tessa last year, offering tutoring and literacy services to young students. She’s already worked with a few clients, and hopes to expand her business under the TEFA program.
“The most important thing to me is for children to learn while feeling joyful and having dignity,” Baden said. “Why can’t interest bridge with rigorous academic learning?”
Her biggest hurdle as of the Vibras event: finding her tax identification number to submit her vendor application.
The vendor market
While the TEFA program has faced criticism after state data showed that most funds will go to families who were already enrolled private school, and school districts worry that the program could take some of their students, other education experts say the program could breed creativity and innovation.
Under Senate Bill 2, which codified education savings accounts into law, public school districts and charter networks can partner with private providers to offer individual courses and services, like special education or dual credit and AP courses, meaning TEFAs could be a launching pad for school districts interested in getting in the vendor market.
TEFAs could also potentially change the game for flexible school models in San Antonio, such as hybrid and online education or the intersection of homeschooling and micro schooling.
The San Antonio region, which includes all of Bexar County and surrounding counties, already has several pre-approved vendors from the Parent-Directed Special Education Services program.
No other providers have shown up on the TEFA website’s list as of Tuesday morning, but Alterman said vendors would likely be notified about their acceptance into the program four to six weeks after submitting their applications.
