I am having the exact same issue over here in South Florida. It's a fairly affluent city, and all of a sudden a huge percentage of the children are "gifted." My DS is in 1st grade. He's at the top of his class. His teacher told us at our conference that he is one of the truly gifted kids out of the bunch. I do believe that most of the kids in his class are probably advanced and bright, but the problem is that my DS is still not being challenged in his gifted classroom, and I believe that part of the issue is because the other kids are not at the same level as he is. I feel your frustration. When parents just want their children to be in the gifted classes whether or not they really belong there, it waters it down for the children that truly need a more enriching environment. I think that there are some teachers out there who are good at individualizing the work for the different levels of the children, but my DS's teacher is definitely not one of them. I think the only thing you can do is try to talk to the school about making sure your child is properly challenged. I've tried this, but unfortunately I'm hitting road blocks. Good luck
