Parents want schools to offer more advanced programming

Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. - A group of parents has asked the state Department of Public Instruction to create rules forcing Wisconsin schools to offer uniform programs for gifted and talented students.

State law already requires districts to identify students who qualify as gifted and talented and offer appropriate programming.

But Todd Palmer, a Madison attorney spearheading the parents' effort, said Thursday schools have pulled resources away from those programs because of ongoing budget problems. The parents filed a petition for rulemaking, a rarely used option to ask the agency to create new rules.

It asks the Department of Public Instruction to create new rules that establish benchmarks districts would have to reach for programs for talented and gifted students.

"They need to continuously be challenged in the work that they do and some of them need special educational support that isn't offered in the traditional classroom setting," said Palmer, whose 13-year-old son is in a gifted and talented program.

Gifted and talented students are defined as those with high potential in various academic areas who need services or activities not ordinarily provided in a regular school program to fully develop those capabilities.

Some studies show if those students are not properly challenged, they are at risk to become alienated, underachieve and drop out of school.

Public Instruction spokesman Joe Donovan said the agency received the petition this week and is reviewing it. He said the agency has a new gifted and talented consultant starting in January to improve programs statewide, while the budget approved earlier this year included $280,000 for middle school and high school gifted and talented programs.

Myles Turner of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrations and John Ashley of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards Inc. acknowledged districts have cut programs for gifted and talented students. But they said tight budgets have forced districts to cut multiple programs, not just those for advanced students.

Both said they would oppose a state mandate requiring benchmarks for those programs because local school boards should make those decisions.

"The mandates don't matter if the money's not there," Myles said.