Dear VR00,

As others have taken your thread away from your original focus (asking DeVos about gifted education), please indulge me as I consider some facts which may refute recent hypothetical scenarios posted.

Fact set 1:
- According to wikipedia, about 87% of children in the US are educated in public schools. The number 81 million was given.
- The number of students attending private schools was given as approximately 5 million. (See footnote 5.) Figures may not add up perfectly due to these resources providing data from different years.

Fact set 2:
- According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), about 13% of all public school students receive special ed services. The number 6.5 million was given.

Analysis:
If 13% of public school students have a disability, doing the math would indicate that about 87% of students (70-75 million students) in public schools do not have a disability.

To quell the fears of those concerned that having DeVos as head of the US Department of Education may result in draining public schools of all students except those receiving special ed services... there simply is not capacity for approximately 70-75 million students to leave public schools for voucher-subsidized opportunities in other schools. Private schools (currently serving approximately 5 million pupils) would need to more than double... more than triple... more than quadruple... they would need to increase capacity 10-fold to 12-fold. This is logistically unlikely.

Does anyone have other facts which make this scenario seem likely to occur? If not, there may be no need to worry, panic, or catastrophize.

Possibly we might be able to channel our energies toward seeing what may be done to support the growth of gifted kids under this administration.