Equity through vouchers: The special case of gifted children

The objective of this study was to determine the extent to which policy makers have shifted the burden of educating gifted children from public schools to families. A second objective was to determine the result of this externalization on different socioeconomic segments of the population and to explore policy options for equalizing opportunities where discrepancies exist. Analyses of state-level spending trends and trends in numbers of students served in public schools were performed. In addition, analyses of the growth rates of major private providers of services for the gifted were performed The results of the analyses were used to construct simulations of policy options including wealth-equalized, talent-based scholarships distributed according to (a) district wealth and (b) family income. The authors then assessed the costs and relative effectiveness of each option.