On February 7, The New York Times ran a good article on the negative impact of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act on gifted education. The article, "Federal Law Drains Resources for the Gifted," offers a powerful look at how the act has devastated gifted and talented programs across the county.

From the article:

The federal No Child Left Behind law requires that virtually all children become proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014, and this demand is forcing many school districts to focus attention—and money—on students who are not proficient in reading or math. Many families of exceptionally bright children like to say that it is the gifted who are being left behind.

In the years after the law’s signing in January 2002, Illinois jettisoned its $19 million allocation for gifted programs and Michigan cut spending to $250,000 from $4 million. Here in Connecticut, 22 percent of the state’s districts eliminated or shrank gifted programs in 2002, and others have since scaled back. It doesn’t take a gifted person to figure out that the law is siphoning off the money.