Everyone I know that is connected to gifted education in Florida is really, really worried about the plans that are being discussed...some counties have already gone ahead and pulled the plug on gifted programs in light of what is "coming down the pike" and the counties wanted to have everything in place now to be ahead of the game...so a whole slew of gifted students are being pulled from a full time gifted program and are being placed back into regular education classes with ZERO gifted services whatsoever (except for what the classroom teacher can do)...parents are up in arms from what I understand.
My family is wanting out of Florida for a number of reasons....Florida seems to be really feeling the recession down here with huge numbers of unemployed and home values plummeting down the toilet along with the really poor education system. Our area is really feeling the pinch because of the no-go on the funding for further space exploration and our area is being talked about as turning into a ghost town within the next 1-2 years with the shut down of NASA. Florida has been known for being the low man on the totem pole as far as education goes and education spending and the whole lottery joke going to education....here is an interesting article put out by the Miami Herald on Florida's standing in Education
http://www.miamiherald.com/2009/08/11/1181951/floridas-education-rankings-difficult.html
