Gifted-and-Talented Students: A Resource Wisconsin Can't Afford to Lose

By Todd Palmer, reprinted from Business Watch, Nov. 2004

In September, 2003, Governor Doyle released his Grow Wisconsin initiative, laying out the administration’s plan for creating a ''high-end'' economy that will keep our ''talented children and grandchildren here in Wisconsin.''

These laudable goals are to be met by focusing on four key areas, one of which is to ''invest in people'' through such things as improved K-12 public education. This makes sense and deserves the support of our business community. However, businesses should insist that at least some of the state’s efforts be shifted towards improving the education of the talented-and-gifted students in Wisconsin’s public education system.

By any objective measure, investing in the education of our gifted students is sound public and business policy. Few would disagree that a ''high-end'' economy must be built upon a highly talented and well-educated workforce that is capable of competing in a global economy. Gifted children have extraordinary potential for becoming the entrepreneurs, business leaders, scientists, and engineers that will lead our new economy. Yet, Wisconsin continues to largely ignore this resource by repeatedly failing to make meaningful investments in educating these children to their fullest potential.

Where Is the Funding?

In the 1990s, the Department of Public Education estimated that a meager $0.02 out of every $100 spent by state and local public school authorities had been targeted to educating talented-and-gifted students. That’s right – two cents of every one hundred dollars. By all accounts this situation has only gotten worse.

The so called ''Title I'' laws require schools to devote a disproportionate share of resources towards ''special-education'' programs andprovide parents of these children with a private cause of action to sue school districts that fail to meet these requirements. The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to meet minimal proficiency standards in core academic areas as a condition of receiving federal funding. Not surprisingly, these programs have caused many schools to shift funding away from gifted programs and towards kids who have trouble keeping up. Although not necessarily their intent, federal laws have encouraged schools to design for minimal proficiency at the expense of our gifted students.

Wisconsin laws are really no better. Our state Supreme Court has held that Wisconsin’s public schools need only provide students with a ''sound basic education'' (i.e., achieve proficiency). Unlike other states, there is no legal requirement that Wisconsin schools develop the full potential of students such as the gifted and talented. Gifted students in our state also lack segregated funding, or any legal recourse, should their needs go unmet by public schools.

Wisconsin does have a statute that requires school boards to provide ''access to a program for gifted-and-talented pupils.'' The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is charged with policing compliance with that requirement. However, the standard is so vague that schools claim nearly any program meets the mandate (one district cited a 4-H Club as meeting the standard).

Moreover, DPI has wholly failed to enforce the standard. Indeed, prior to 2003, DPI’s own rules required its staff to annually audit 10% of our 426 school districts on a random basis to ensure gifted students had access to appropriate education programs. However, a 2003 legislative audit found that, in eight years, DPI had never performed such an audit. In fact, DPI has not even staffed an audit team since 1995. DPI’s response to thelegislative audit report was to change its rules so as to completely eliminate its random auditing responsibilities. This is where Wisconsin remains today—no funding, no enforcement, and no legal recourse for the affected students.

What Needs to Be Done

Wisconsin must start investing in educating gifted students in K-12 if the state is serious about building a ''high-end'' economy. From a business perspective, it is simply inconceivable that an organization would divert virtually all investment away from developing its most promising prospects and opportunities. Such investment is critical to ensuring the long-term success and vitality of an organization.

Progressive school districts such as Eau Claire have chosen to make these investments and are seeing the benefits. Take for instance Richard and Mary Jurmain, who own Realityworks, Inc. (Richard won the Fortune Product of the Year Award and Mary was National Business Person of the Year). In the process of deciding where to locate their business, the Jurmains interviewed school districts and chose Eau Claire for the outstanding quality of its gifted education program.

''There are a growing number of young, highly educated, high-tech entrepreneurs out there who are looking for the right place to raise a family and to raise a business,'' warns Richard Jurmain. ''Like us, they will be looking at the quality of talented-and-gifted programs.'' How will Wisconsin attract these entrepreneurs without a having made a solid investment in gifted education?

Earlier this year the Governor’s Task Force on Educational Excellence released its recommendations for improving the state’s public education system. This report was meant to dovetail, at least in part, with the Governors’ Grow Wisconsin plan. Yet nowhere in that report is there a recommendation for improving the educationopportunities for our gifted students. The governor’s plan should be amended to address these shortcomings before business supports the initiative.

Todd Palmer is an attorney with DeWitt Ross & Stevens and the parent of three school-aged children. Contact him at tep@dewittross.net.

Published in Business Watch, November 2004. Reprinted with permission.