ACE has awarded more than 6,000 scholarships totaling more than $12 million and works with 200 partner schools.
“It was in response to the failed initiative to create a voucher program,” said Cranberg, who recently was appointed to a six-year term to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. “We figured we couldn’t just tell other people to spend their money. We should ourselves. We could put together a demonstration project to show what happens when kids got additional opportunities beyond those that were originally offered.”
Although ACE has been associated with private schools, Cranberg stresses that it advocates for choice in education overall and supports the rise of charter schools in the public school system.
“Kids are very diverse, and their needs are very diverse. They need to have products that are designed for them, and not just for everybody or the average,” he said. “We’ve always been big believers in the underlying fundamental principle of choice and competition, wherever that can be derived. And that doesn’t necessarily mean private. Since ACE was founded there has gotten to be more and more public competition and public choice – true competitive choice, not just flavors of the same basic product. The biggest piece of that is the growth of the charter movement.”
Alex Cranberg 