“Vouchers for the Gifted”

Joanne Jacobs:

Levi Clancy’s special needs can’t be met by his local public schools, so his mother enrolled him a school where he’s able to learn. But the district won’t pay the cost, because the 14-year-old boy (aka Levi Meir Levi) is a junior premed at UCLA. The mother’s suit for special ed compensation for the “profoundly gifted” — in this case college tuition — was heard by the California First District Court of Appeals in Sacramento two weeks ago. The suit asks for vouchers for gifted students whose needs can’t be met in the normal K-12 schools. The state says it has no “constitutional duty” to offer a free education beyond the high school level, even to students who are required by law to attend school.
The New York Sun tells the story of a progressive superintendent who eliminated classes for gifted and talented students in her New York City region, driving out middle-class families and radically reducing the number of students who qualify for specialty high schools. In the name of equity, smart kids are denied the chance to learn at their own level.

Janet Mertz has been following the Madison School District Administration’s curriculum reduction (without Board discussion/approval) initiatives.

One thought on ““Vouchers for the Gifted””

  1. This is a major concern of mine as our community goes down the primrose path to achieve equity: Will smart kids be denied the chance to learn at their own level in the name of “equity”? I think that, as a community, Madisonians can do better than this. However, I also see the reality “on the ground”: funding is so tight, and there is so much pressure to “close the achievement gap”.
    I know our Equity Task Force has been struggling with these issues. I do wonder 1) What our community thinks and 2) What our school leaders think- regarding this quandry.

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