The achievement gap is always a big topic of conversation in our state and our district with no or little progress made in closing it despite tons of money poured into equity initiatives. Basically the only outcomes that they are interested in are performance on math/reading bubble tests and how many kids graduate or go to college. But the bubble tests seem to be the most important thing. Anything that doesn't raise scores on the bubble tests or help make them more even, is deemed not worth an investment (incl. in some cases gifted education). Gifted education, in fact, just makes the achievement gap worse according to a lot of people. It's not worth an investment because raising the scores of the top kids just makes the achievement gap looks worse on paper.
