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Brandee Eburn posted an article on the CCE Parents Group Yahoo Group about a bill in the Florida legislature to hold school districts accountable for spending funds allocated to gifted education on appropriate programs. In summary, legislators feel some districts are not spending funds allocated for gifted programs on gifted students because the funds are provided as a lump sum for special education. Legislators also want to mandate gifted screening for all students. Please review the article.

The St. Johns County School District Budget Presentation for 2007 - 2008 is a top-level presentation that simply shows revenue sources and expenditure allocations by major categories. Special education is not broken out as a separate category, so obviously it is impossible to drill further to determine allocations for gifted programs. This information was not provided in the 2006 Annual Report either, so it will likely not be provided in the 2007 Annual Report.

It can not be determined at this time how spending on gifted programs in St. Johns County compares to state intentions and other districts in Florida. However, the idea of transparency with regard to allocations is a good thing, but is sure to elicit protests from districts with regard to local control.

Additionally, the testing mandate will be welcomed by parents that have had to fight for testing of their children.

Posted: 10|25|07 at 2:29 pm. Filed under: News. New here? Follow this entry via RSS 2.0. Comment | Trackback