Kansas City, Mo. ? The Kansas City school district is offering cash for good grades, two years after the district began paying students to attend summer school.

Students who maintained at least a C average in summer school will receive Visa gift cards this week along with those who rarely or never missed a day of school. The gift cards are valued as high as $150.

Education experts say the move makes Kansas City the first large school district in the nation to pay students for good grades.

Some education experts are skeptical of the incentive program, but the district has seen summer school enrollment rise, attendance improve and state funding increase.

During the 2001 summer sessions, before the gift card program was introduced, enrollment was 8,400 and the attendance rate was 79 percent. This year, 14,500 students attended summer school 91 percent of the time.

“We got what we wanted in terms of attendance, and now we want the academics,” said Sugar Lee Lewis, director of admissions for the district.

The program is not a cheap one. The district has spent $1.4 million this year for gift cards going to 13,000 students.

But district officials say increased aid from the state — twice as high in the summer as the regular school year, and dependent on the number of students — means their schools will still net an extra $10 million after summer school costs.

“We’ve run into a lot of dead ends in trying to help low-income kids improve their performance,” said Jay Greene, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. “Overall, it is an attractive idea.”

Zattura Sims-El, of the Washington advocacy group the Education Trust, wasn’t so sure.

Giving students money “sends the wrong kind of message,” she said, “that kids have to be bought in order to get good grades.”

Earning a C average, she added, “is a very low bar.”

Still, many students — and their parents — applauded the program.

“She’s excited about having her own little credit card with her money,” said Charla Braden, whose 7-year-old daughter, Brooke, earned a $75 gift card. “We worked really hard.”