Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions We're Moving!!!

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

I just came back from Florida after watching Monday's shuttle launch. At Kennedy Space Center they pointed out the mobile launcher built for the now cancelled Constellation project. The joke was they're going to turn it into the NASA bungee jumping tower.

This Florida mess is why I'm such a proponent of growth assessments. If schools are measured on individual student growth, there is incentive to teach to the zone of proximal development aka "learning around the edges of what you already know." I'd love to know how the MAP growth results were affected for the gifted students in the counties that pulled the plug.

I live in GA currently. And while the state has funded gifted programs, the state ranks 49th in the nation in education, above South Carolina only. So ANY state is better for education in general than where we are now. My county alone is facing education cuts of over $100k for the 10-11 school year, with our ALP/Target programs being looked at as being cut as well. And the surrounding counties are no better.

So, staying here might not be much better (the unemployment rate is higher in GA than it is in FL, too).

OK, so we were in Florida this past week. My mother met with a former coworker for lunch who has a son in the gifted program in Volusia County. He's in high school now (I met him when he was DS6's age). Apparently the county has a program for those in the gifted program to get their associates degree by the time they graduate college.

This IMMEDIATELY sparked my interest. So for you Floridians, how likely is it that they will pull these type of programs? I know talk about it is constant (it is here too). But it looks like the move to Florida will happen within the next 12 months (no later than 24 months), so I want to make sure that I am going, if nothing else, to the right County.

Any info that you may have that compares Florida schools (both public and private) would be MUCH appreciated. I am not opposed to doing the research on my own, fyi, I just think the more info the better!

TIA!!!

Gee, I want my kid to have a bachelor's degree by the time they graduate college. ;P
I'm assuming you mean high school, right? I don't know about
Florida or funding, but those types of programs (sometimes for gifted kids, sometimes for at-risk) kids are becoming more common across the nation. Does sound potentially exciting, though. Crossing my fingers for ya!

These programs are pretty common and have been around a while, at least in Florida. (Don't know anything about current funding though, but don't see that this is an extraordinary expense for the state.) There are potential downsides to this program however. If you graduate high school with an AA degree, you will then be applying to college as a transfer student, not a freshman. On average there are way fewer spots for transfer students than for incoming freshman in most schools. Additionally, transfer students don't have the same availability to the lucrative financial aid packages as do freshman. Issues to consider. Probably not the way you want to go if you are loooking at the very selective colleges.

One benefit to Florida's program is that a student who succesfully completes an A.A. degree at a Florida community college is guaranteed admittance to a Florida public university. This doesn't automatically mean he or she will get into University of Florida, but there are about 12-14 public universities in the state, so he/she will get in somewhere.

In addition, the Florida Bright Futures Program pays for about 75% of the tuition for many public and private colleges (75% of the public tuition rate) in Florida for students who maintain a 3.5 GPA, with a few other caveats.

http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/SSFAD/bf/

(Recent funding cuts are supposed to be changing the rate of 100% that is listed on the website)

Here's another link just for bright futures:

http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/SSFAD/factsheets/BF.htm

Thanks CFK.

And I'm not picky about what college either DC go to, as long as they go.

And Clay - yeah, I meant high school!!! sheesh my brain is still on vacation!