Stop Awards
Education Freedom
Where Innovation Meets Opportunity:
The Texas Education Freedom Award
In Spring 2025, following the passage of Texas’s groundbreaking Education Savings Account Program, members of the Yass Prize community signaled their interest in expanding award-winning school models across the state—ensuring families could access a wide variety of life-changing education opportunities.
To support this vision, the Texas Education Freedom Award was created in alignment with the Yass Prize mission to find, reward, celebrate, and expand education providers who STOP for students. After a rigorous review process, and at a special event held in partnership with the University of Austin (UATX), select Yass Prize alumni were awarded funding to position them to launch or expand innovative school models in 2026—meeting the needs of even more Texas students.
— Governor Greg Abbott
Drumroll please…
Meet the innovators leading the way to expand life-changing education options for Texas families:
An innovative national charter school network, which will launch ten Texas microschools through the ASU Prep Microschool Fellowship
Will expand to Brownsville, opening the BuildUP Community School in partnership with Come Dream, Come Build
Whose 40 faith-based schools throughout the country combine rigorous academics with professional work experience, will expand enrollment at their Fort Worth campus
A parent navigator organization that will expand its support to help tens of thousands of new families to understand and access their new school options
Will incubate at least 50 new microschools in Texas to provide thousands of new personalized learning opportunities for students by fall of 2026
An organization that provides support to homeschooling parents and caregivers, will open two new learning environments in Tyler and Whitehouse, TX
Will dramatically increase enrollment at their existing preschool locations throughout the metropolitan area
A Catholic school management organization that develops outstanding elementary schools for underserved communities, will expand its K-8 schools to Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio
National network of microschools serving K-8 students, will launch up to 10 campuses and 30 microschools in Texas by September 2026
