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This article seems like a submarine from a wealthy lobby group trying to influence the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind. For starters the article shows

This article seems like a submarine from a wealthy lobby group trying to influence the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind. For starters the article shows a complete failure to understand educational funding, example: >Both Ontario and Taiwan treat gifted children as eligible for “special education,” much like disabled students, giving them access to additional resources. So does the US...Perhaps the misunderstanding is much broader than I give credit, but in the US everyone is entitled to a free and appropriate education, including ESE students. It seems people think ESE is just for disabled children, but it is also for gifted students. As a lawyer who advocated on behalf of ESE students, I saw everything from a disabled child being subsidized to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, to a blind student being denied a ~$100 reading program (maybe one of the most rewarding moments of my legal career was getting the school to agree to purchase that program - but was a lawyer really necessary?), and advocating for a gifted ESE high school student who attended some classes at the local university via duel enrollment. If US students' scores are lagging behind their international counter-parts it is not because gifted students in the US are not getting funding. There are more resources now than ever for gifted students, including: duel enrollments, online curriculum, and vouchers for private/charter schools.

jrwoodruff 11y ago
But all of your options for gifted students are outside of the regular school system, while the options for disabled children are part of the system. I doubt a gifted student would be granted money for a special tutor or more difficult lessons, but disabled students are subsidized hundreds of thousands of dollars for in-classroom aides, assistive devices, etc. Meanwhile, gifted students should leave the public system and use vouchers for a private education?
- amateurpolymath 11y ago
  I can't speak for other states, but in Florida it's very easy to do dual enrollment, possibly the best option for a gifted high school student. As long as your courses are at a public university or community college, your tuition is fully funded by the state. Your high school credits are satisfied by college courses, you get college credits that are easily transferred to other universities when you graduate, for free. There are also plenty of challenging classes for gifted students, but this might vary from school to school.
ironchef 11y ago
will, I respectfully disagree. My family has been involved in gifted education in a number of ways for several decades. While ESE does encompass both sides of the spectrum, gifted funding, in general is massively shortfunded compared to the other side of the spectrum. Another fun fact is that those that are gifted can also have learning disabilities (You can, for example, be gifted and have dyslexia). If you want to get specific, here are some examples. States are largely responsible for the funding of gifted education; however, it is _largely_ not regulated at the federal level (in contrast with special education). In the state of Illinois for example, there was $0 towards gifted education from 2010 - 2013. In comparison, California (with approximately 3 times the number of students) spent approximately 44 mil per year (those 3 academic years) on gifted education. There are plenty of statistics available at various resources such as the NAGC. A great summary they provided: In 2013-14: 14 states provided no funding to local districts for gifted education Of the 25 states that provided funds to districts 8 provided $40 million or more 9 states provided between $1 million and $10 million 9 states have policies specifically permitting acceleration of students; 22 states leave the decision to school districts 17 states do not collect demographic data about their gifted student population 9 states report on the academic performance / learning growth of gifted students as a separate group on state report cards or other accountability measures
- will_brown 11y ago
  I am not saying the numbers you provide are inaccurate, but they reflect the data of a special interest group who is trying to raise money. Alternatively, we can look at just 9 states that disclosed their funding for gifted programs in 2010-2011 and see an annual budget of >$1B for gifted program funding: FL: 267M GA: 301M TX: 138M NC: 68M OH: 65M VA: 45M LA: 65M SC: 26M AR: 25M Moreover, examples such as Illinois you highlighted don't tell a full story by saying $0 of funding for gifted programs. Illinois did cut all state funding of the gifted program (mostly citing a $100B pension shortfall) but the gifted programs are still funded by the school districts, this does leave gaps or haves/have-nots but that is one of the issues that vouchers are intended to balance to ensure a free and appropriate education. When discussing funding of gifted programs we should refrain from comparing it to "the other side of the ESE spectrum", because it is not a give and take from one group to the other, and even if it were it is not an appropriate comparison in terms of overall number of students, and average cost/student for services. Otherwise we would look at non-ESE students and say they don't get any special funding, or kids who qualify for free lunch
emodendroket 11y ago
The main reason US students lag behind is that there is wild disparity between schools. If you focus on kids attending affluent schools American students do a lot better.

jrwoodruff 11y ago

But all of your options for gifted students are outside of the regular school system, while the options for disabled children are part of the system. I doubt a gifted student would be granted money for a special tutor or more difficult lessons, but disabled students are subsidized hundreds of thousands of dollars for in-classroom aides, assistive devices, etc. Meanwhile, gifted students should leave the public system and use vouchers for a private education?

amateurpolymath 11y ago
I can't speak for other states, but in Florida it's very easy to do dual enrollment, possibly the best option for a gifted high school student. As long as your courses are at a public university or community college, your tuition is fully funded by the state. Your high school credits are satisfied by college courses, you get college credits that are easily transferred to other universities when you graduate, for free. There are also plenty of challenging classes for gifted students, but this might vary from school to school.

ironchef 11y ago

will, I respectfully disagree. My family has been involved in gifted education in a number of ways for several decades. While ESE does encompass both sides of the spectrum, gifted funding, in general is massively shortfunded compared to the other side of the spectrum. Another fun fact is that those that are gifted can also have learning disabilities (You can, for example, be gifted and have dyslexia). If you want to get specific, here are some examples. States are largely responsible for the funding of gifted education; however, it is _largely_ not regulated at the federal level (in contrast with special education). In the state of Illinois for example, there was $0 towards gifted education from 2010 - 2013. In comparison, California (with approximately 3 times the number of students) spent approximately 44 mil per year (those 3 academic years) on gifted education. There are plenty of statistics available at various resources such as the NAGC. A great summary they provided: In 2013-14: 14 states provided no funding to local districts for gifted education Of the 25 states that provided funds to districts 8 provided $40 million or more 9 states provided between $1 million and $10 million 9 states have policies specifically permitting acceleration of students; 22 states leave the decision to school districts 17 states do not collect demographic data about their gifted student population 9 states report on the academic performance / learning growth of gifted students as a separate group on state report cards or other accountability measures

will_brown 11y ago
I am not saying the numbers you provide are inaccurate, but they reflect the data of a special interest group who is trying to raise money. Alternatively, we can look at just 9 states that disclosed their funding for gifted programs in 2010-2011 and see an annual budget of >$1B for gifted program funding: FL: 267M GA: 301M TX: 138M NC: 68M OH: 65M VA: 45M LA: 65M SC: 26M AR: 25M Moreover, examples such as Illinois you highlighted don't tell a full story by saying $0 of funding for gifted programs. Illinois did cut all state funding of the gifted program (mostly citing a $100B pension shortfall) but the gifted programs are still funded by the school districts, this does leave gaps or haves/have-nots but that is one of the issues that vouchers are intended to balance to ensure a free and appropriate education. When discussing funding of gifted programs we should refrain from comparing it to "the other side of the ESE spectrum", because it is not a give and take from one group to the other, and even if it were it is not an appropriate comparison in terms of overall number of students, and average cost/student for services. Otherwise we would look at non-ESE students and say they don't get any special funding, or kids who qualify for free lunch

emodendroket 11y ago

The main reason US students lag behind is that there is wild disparity between schools. If you focus on kids attending affluent schools American students do a lot better.