ACE Scholarships, a program that provides partial funding for lower-income families to send their children to a private school of their choice, is showing remarkable progress in achievement for at-risk students.
The tuition assistance is capped at $2,000 for Kindergarten through 8th grade and $3,000 for high school, providing — at most — half the cost of private school.
The typical ACE family of four earns around $40,000 a year.
ACE Scholarships Kansas provided awards totaling roughly $1.95 million for 705 ACE scholars for the 23-24 school year.
“Empowering students to choose their educational path allows them to feel a deep connection to their learning experience, helping them to unlock their full potential,” AJ Kuhle, President of ACE Scholarships Kansas and Missouri. “When given the opportunity to attend schools that best fit their needs, students — like those on ACE scholarships — consistently outperform national averages. This level of enthusiasm and success in education can become the norm when students and their families have the freedom to choose the schools that best align with their aspirations and learning styles.”
ACE moved into Kansas in 2016 and the most recent test scores bear out that the scholarships are helping.
ACE students who qualify for the federal “Free and Reduced Lunch” program—which Kansas uses to identify so-called “at-risk” students—score significantly higher than their counterparts in public schools.
In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, 71% of low-income students in Grades 3-8 on ACE scholarships were proficient in reading compared to just 21% of low-income students in Kansas public schools. In math, 67% of ACE students were proficient compared to just 19% of public school students.
Indeed, ACT scores in Kansas — a common metric for “college and career readiness” — have been plummeting for years and continue to show precipitous declines for the 2023-24 school year.
ACT scores for individual high schools in Kansas show concerning declines since 2015 in most cases.
The statewide composite in 2015 was 21.9 but fell steadily to perhaps the lowest level in at least recent history, 19.4, in 2023. College readiness in English, Reading, Math, and Science dropped from 32% in 2015 to just 19% in 2023.
ACT defines college readiness as having at least a 50% chance of getting a B on an entry-level college course or a 75% chance of getting a C.
ACE scholarship program shows increase in college graduate rates as well
Twelve of 14 Kansas ACE scholar seniors last year completed a survey telling ACE their future plans and 10 of them are planning to attend college in the fall, the other two are going to a trade school or plan on working. For ACE nationwide, 42.1% of ACE Scholars graduated college within 6 years, compared to 29.2% and 24.9% of low income and high poverty high school graduates respectively (these numbers are in reference to the class of 2016).
ACE partnered with 72 schools for the 23-24 school year, and are partnered with 85 schools for this upcoming year — and anticipates a total of about 5% increase in awards to families.
ACE works with parents and private schools in 13 states across the country.
Patrick Richardson – The Sentinel
Patrick Richardson has been a working journalist since 1992 at community papers across Kansas and for the last 10 as an editor for papers in Southeast Kansas, Northeast Oklahoma, and Southwest Missouri. As a freelancer, he has also broken major stories for national outlets like PJ Media and The Daily Caller. Richardson was born in Wichita and raised in Southwest Kansas and currently lives in extreme SE Kansas, with his wife, two Great Danes, English Bulldog and 10 grandchildren.
