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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

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
- ironchef 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." - That's a fair criticism; however, like any other data, trying to find "true" data is quite difficult. For example, if I look at the florida number (which I found via) that also includes money for low SES and ESL students. I don't see what percentage unfortunately. I think it's fair to say not all 267 M is spent in what is traditionally considered gifted education in that case. That being said... a billion dollars? Extrapolating for a moment and looking at the states you picked they're approximately 1/3 of the population of the united states. That would suggest around 3 billion dollars being spent nationally... We have approximately 50 million k-12 students in the US. With around 5 to 10% of that population being gifted that would give us 600 to 1200 per gifted pupil in additional spending. Average spending per pupil (non-gifted) is around 9k or so. My point is we trivially fund gifted education in this country. "it is not a give and take from one group to the other". I know ... and that's why I pointed out that people can belong to both groups (gifted dyslexics for example). "that is one of the issues that vouchers are intended to balance". Intent is great. That doesn't mean it produces said results, does it?

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

ironchef 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." - That's a fair criticism; however, like any other data, trying to find "true" data is quite difficult. For example, if I look at the florida number (which I found via) that also includes money for low SES and ESL students. I don't see what percentage unfortunately. I think it's fair to say not all 267 M is spent in what is traditionally considered gifted education in that case. That being said... a billion dollars? Extrapolating for a moment and looking at the states you picked they're approximately 1/3 of the population of the united states. That would suggest around 3 billion dollars being spent nationally... We have approximately 50 million k-12 students in the US. With around 5 to 10% of that population being gifted that would give us 600 to 1200 per gifted pupil in additional spending. Average spending per pupil (non-gifted) is around 9k or so. My point is we trivially fund gifted education in this country. "it is not a give and take from one group to the other". I know ... and that's why I pointed out that people can belong to both groups (gifted dyslexics for example). "that is one of the issues that vouchers are intended to balance". Intent is great. That doesn't mean it produces said results, does it?