Our gifted program seems to be excellent. It starts in 4th grade. The kids in 4-6th grade cover 4 years of math in 3 years, so they eventually take Geometry in 8th grade, Algebra II in 9th grade, Pre-Cal in 10th grade, Calculus AP-AB in 11th grade, and Calculus AP-BC in 12th grade (if you want to go that route).
So the gifted program kids end up skipping 1-2 years of math over the regular program. I'm sure the English part is similarly accelerated.
I don't think that is a waste of time or money.