Unless a gifted child also has a disability, many families may find that the needs of their gifted children are better met in learning environments other than government schools.
Seeing my 4yo post a few posts up in this thread, I can't pass this up without responding. It may be that public schools do not work for many families, but my twins are now rising 12th graders with 12 years of public schools behind them, and although there are things about their hs I would like to change, they have received an excellent education and are well prepared for the next step. Their hs is large so there is a good size cohort of academic peers, there are some excellent extracurriculars (competing well at the national level), and they have had *some* amazing teachers. The dual enrollment program has allowed both to take university courses (CS, math and physics), at the district's expense, and those courses also count toward their high school graduation requirements. My advice is to not rule out public schools out of hand - although I am quite certain that some are truly bad, in some cases the complaints I've heard from other parents are out of proportion to the reality in the school.
