AUSTIN — The Texas comptroller’s race is shaping up as a contest over the future of the state’s new education savings account program, which uses public funds to help pay for private-school tuition and home-schooling costs. The Texas Education Freedom Accounts program is in its first year and has a billion-dollar budget. Comptroller Don Huffines, a Republican seeking to keep the office in November, said in August that 101,600 students had received funding. The comptroller’s office is responsible under state law for administering and overseeing the program’s money. Huffines has backed expanding the initiative and said he wants to market it broadly to families. He described the program as a “free market approach” focused on students and parents, rather than school districts. His office and Huffines have asked lawmakers to double the program’s base funding for the 2027-28 budget period, according to a report by the Texas Tribune. His opponent, Democratic state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin, voted against the program’s authorizing bill. During a Senate debate in February 2025, she warned that losing the public education system would harm everyone. Eckhardt has said she would conduct a rigorous audit of the program if elected, examining where the money goes and how the program affects public schools. “Audits are absolutely crucial in the voucher program,” she said, arguing lawmakers need reliable information about what she called the risk of a “runaway subsidy.” The political disagreement reflects a broader dispute over public dollars flowing to education outside the public-school system. Supporters say the accounts give families more options when they are dissatisfied with their children’s public schools. Opponents worry the program could grow at public schools’ expense, since district funding is tied to enrollment and attendance. Huffines took over the comptroller’s office in August after former acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock oversaw the program’s early rollout. Voters will decide in November whether Huffines remains in the post or Eckhardt takes charge of the office overseeing the accounts.