Holy crap, something I actually know about. Low-income students are historically underrepresented in gifted programs. "our estimates suggest that a student in

Holy crap, something I actually know about. Low-income students are historically underrepresented in gifted programs. "our estimates suggest that a student in the top SES quintile is about twice as likely to receive gifted services as a student in the lowest SES quintile in the same school who is achieving at similar levels in math and reading." [https://www.nagc.org/blog/low-income-students-are-profoundly-underrepresented-gifted-programs https://www.nagc.org/blog/low-income-students-are-profoundly...] Further, "[The] Second [factor to being identified as gifted] is attending a wealthier school: Children who attend Title I schools are identified at only 58% the rate of those who attend Non-Title I schools." [https://www.education.purdue.edu/geri/new-publications/gifted-education-in-the-united-states/ https://www.education.purdue.edu/geri/new-publications/gifte...] Anyone connected to TAG programs believes we need to do better at identifying the students from low-income backgrounds (and minority backgrounds, but I don't have those links saved on my computer). The problem is, that would take massive resource re-allocation from wealthy to poor districts. That is something that no one is willing to talk about, let alone follow through on. Therefore, it's easier to say we need to eliminate them, because it's not fair that someone has access to them and others don't. It's smoke and mirrors to avoid the real problem. And about this article in particular. >Look at the success of special needs education. What success? They cite nothing to back up that sentence. Are SpEd students more successful than they were before IEP's? >Public schools are more than capable of providing different educational experiences for different children. There is a broad and vast difference than being able to provide something in theory, and not actually being able to do it because of funding. My experience in public education is that many things are tracked into a 'warehouse' style because it's cheaper and the budget won't support the number of teachers and aides required for true in-class differentiation. And finally, this is an old argument presented as if it is brand new. I believe it's done for attention. Not really sure why this would be 'policy' now. Is there a big, new push to eliminate TAG programs that I don't know about?