‘All it takes is one’: How a federal program helped top basketball prospect Acaden Lewis get to Kentucky

On Wednesday, Acaden Lewis, one of the top high school basketball prospects in the nation, will speak on Capitol Hill about how a federal program helped him rise from an underserved Washington, D.C. community to Division I college basketball.

Lewis, a senior at Sidwell Friends School, a private Quaker high school in Washington, will give a speech in the U.S. Capitol in support of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), which provides families in the nation’s capital with funds to attend local private high schools instead of public schools. Those attending the event will include former Washington mayor Anthony William, former education secretary Betsy Devos and former House speaker John Boehner.

The OSP was created in 2003 and launched in 2004 as the country’s first federally funded private school voucher program. On Tuesday, the Trump administration ordered a pause on federal grants and loans. At this time, it is unclear how or if OSP could be impacted.

Through the program, Lewis, who grew up in a neighborhood long ignored and abandoned by the district, was able to attend Sidwell, which boasts a strong academic and basketball reputation. In November 2024, the 19-year-old committed to playing under head coach Mark Pope at Kentucky.

“All it takes is one,” Lewis said from his family’s apartment in Northeast Washington.

Lewis, the 2024 Washington Gatorade high school player of the year, is currently averaging 12 points, four rebounds, four assists, and two steals a game for Sidwell. The team is not only ranked No. 1 in the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAC) but is also looking to win a district-record fourth state title in a row next month.

The 6-feet-2, 180-pound lefty has tricky handles and disorienting start-stop speed that has left many of his defenders over the years guarding empty space. His quarterback-like passing accuracy and finishing ability make him an exceptional playmaker, likely stemming from watching highlights of current players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Kyrie Irving and retired guard Jayson Williams, whose No. 55 jersey Lewis plans to wear at Kentucky. “The number just adds a different swag,” he said.

To succeed at the next level — where before committing to Kentucky, he fielded offers from fellow blue bloods Duke, North Carolina and UConn — Lewis said he’ll have to improve his strength (the aforementioned 180 pounds), efficiency (he’s shooting 37% from the field this season) and leadership. “More fiery. I’m pretty even-kiltered but this year, I’ve been working at barking a little more and really getting on people when I think they’re not giving everything they can.”

This all may not have been possible without the OSP.

Like many public school systems nationwide, D.C. Public Schools face constant underfunding, understaffing, overcrowding and low test scores. However, according to The Washington Post, graduation rates and college enrollment are the highest in years.  Lewis attended public schools through middle school, but when it came time to decide on a high school, he and his parents preferred the academic and basketball opportunities afforded by private schools, which have notable alumni like Kevin Durant (Montrose Christian School ), Markelle Fultz (DeMatha Catholic) and Quinn Cook (DeMatha Catholic). 

“They have more money, they have more access, they get to these bigger tournaments around the country,” Lewis said. “… And the education would be significantly better by going to one of these private schools.”

He first settled on St. John’s College High School in Northwest Washington, which recruited him out of middle school, but with a $24,000 annual tuition, it would have been nearly impossible for the family to afford. But through Lewis’ middle school’s weekly newsletter, they found out about the OSP, which provided partial or full student assistance based on financial need (up to $15,000 per year). After his sophomore year, Lewis transferred to Sidwell, whose tuition ($56,000) is more than double that of St. John’s. Lewis’ father, Jarett, said the family doesn’t pay the full tuition price at Sidwell due to OSP and the school’s own need-based assistance. What the family pays “in comparison to what full tuition of $56,000 is, is almost immaterial,” he said.

The family moved from Virginia to Washington when Lewis was four, setting up in the Trinidad neighborhood in the northeast. The area had been in decline for decades, rife with drugs and crime, culminating in a triple slaying in 2008 that led to police setting up vehicle checkpoints around the neighborhood. “Trinidad had a reputation,” a woman told The Washington Post in 2021. “You minded your business and kept your head down.”

New and renovated homes signal the gentrification efforts in Trinidad today, most evident on the H Street corridor, where streetcars and patio restaurants clash with boarded-up businesses and panhandling. Lewis and his father live in a four-unit row house just off New York Avenue, where the effects of substance addiction can be seen in broad daylight on a traffic median.

Through all of Trinidad’s troubles, a sense of community has always existed. Lewis’ basketball journey has been supported all the way back to when the local ballers ensured he and his father got their full 90-minute training time in the mornings at the Trinidad Recreation Center before men’s league games started up later. He was also kept away from all the nonsense in the streets by those who wanted to see him succeed. 

Despite going to a private Quaker school miles—and a lifestyle—away, Lewis keeps Trinidad close to his chest: He held his college commitment announcement in November at the Trinidad Recreation Center and has the center tattooed on his right bicep. Growing up in this environment compared to, say, in a McMansion near the Real Housewives of Potomac humbled Lewis and made him stronger as a person.

“I hope I can be a beacon to some of these other kids that are growing up here to be, like, He’s from Trinidad, he’s going to Kentucky, he’s got good grades his whole life, he’s done a good job in school, and hopefully people can look up to that and I can hopefully inspire other kids,” Lewis said.

Lewis loves being at Sidwell. On the court, he’s learned what sacrifices have to be made to be great: getting more rest (“I could stay up until 1 a.m. and and play video games and wake up at 6 for school.”), taking better care of his body and missing some of the typical teenage things his peers can participate in. Lewis has never been to homecoming and will attend his first prom in the spring. “It’s a different teenage life than most, for sure, but I wouldn’t say I am missing out, just getting a different look at it,” he said. He’s made friends with people whose families have reached the financial success Lewis will need advice with as he moves into college basketball’s name, image and likeness space. The academic culture of the 500-student body, where many are competing to get into the same Ivy League schools, pushes Lewis to up his game in the classroom. He hadn’t received a “C” grade until he met physics at Sidwell. 

“Excellence is a standard,” he said.

While voucher programs can have a positive, life-changing impact on students like Lewis, who are chosen, they can have the opposite effect on those in public schools. Vouchers take federal funds that would typically go to public school systems and divert them to families to pay for tuition at private institutions. In 2023, $52.5 million of federal funds were sent to Washington schools, with public, charters and vouchers each getting one-third. The 2025 fiscal year Washington’s budget is $2.8 billion, with public and charter schools each getting half. However, for the presence of vouchers and charters, public schools would receive 100% of the funding, not to mention questions surrounding disability discrimination and federal oversight regarding voucher schools.

Jarett Lewis said the family wasn’t initially aware of how the voucher system was funded. Still, once they found out, they made it a personal initiative to help the families in their community who were not fortunate enough to attend private schools. Jarett Lewis has, for instance, referred people to programs like the Upward Bound program at historically Black Howard University, which provides low-income and first-generation high school kids with college-level tutoring, advising and instruction.

“Because we are community-oriented, we don’t want to take, take, take,” Jarett Lewis said. “We try to find avenues to give as well.”

When Lewis touches down in Lexington later this year, it’ll not only be to start the next level of his basketball career but also a new life for himself. Through basketball, he’s already traveled all across the country, but this will be Lewis’ first time on his own, making himself into the man he wants to be.

Lewis has always been smart enough to attend a big state school and talented enough to play Division I ball. But he credits the OSP for opening up opportunities that otherwise would not have been available to someone growing up in Trinidad.

“Maybe not everyone with this opportunity does as well as me or takes advantage of it fully, but all it takes is one and hopefully me being that one can really help plead the case why they should continue to re-fund and reassure that this will be a good thing for the community,” Lewis said when asked what he plans to say at the Capitol.

“Because I’ve done great with this and without this I don’t know if I would be in these same circumstances.”