Almost 2 percent of Connecticut’s school-aged children have extremely high IQs, and hence are considered “gifted students.” Nationwide, there are 3 million gifted students.
But what sets Connecticut apart from 44 other states is that the state appropriates no funding for programs to cater to these students’ learning needs, according to the National Association for Gifted Children.
And federal funding has been completely cut over the past few years.
Deseret News out of Salt Lake City has a good rundown of the state of gifted education, including details of a study that was completed in Stamford, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s hometown.
“It’s a bad time to be a gifted child in America,” Sally Reis, professor of education at the University of Connecticut, told Deseret News. She says research suggests that gifted children perform better academically when instructed with peers who have similar abilities.