TALENT Act: Federal Legislation to Support Gifted Students!

Our new federal gifted education legislation, the TALENT Act, is being introduced on April 15 in both the House and Senate by Senators Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Bob Casey (PA) and Representatives Elton Gallegly (CA-24) and Donald Payne (NJ-10).  The bipartisan legislation focuses on the 4 critical areas for federal attention:  accountability, professional development, underserved gifted students, and research and dissemination of best practices. 

"As a nation, we have neglected our gifted and talented and high-potential students for far too long, to our detriment. Not only do our students continue to lag behind the world on the most recent international tests, but few U.S. students are reaching the highest levels on state, national and international tests, a sign we are not focusing on developing advanced talent in our schools. The TALENT Act is a meaningful and cost-effective solution to this problem," said NAGC President Ann Robinson.

Click here for more information about TALENT. 

The legislation is written to amend the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which the Congress is working on this year. Our first goal is to secure as many cosponsors for the TALENT Act as possible – and from among education committee members -- to reinforce for the committee leaders how much support there is for including gifted students in the revised version of ESEA. 

Please contact your Members of Congress through their online email forms (House and Senate) and urge them to support advanced achievement as a pillar of federal education policy by cosponsoring the TALENT Act. 

Also, if you haven’t done so already, please consider joining NAGC’s Legislative Action Network as a way to stay active in advocacy efforts with Members of Congress and in your local media.  Visit the LAN Webpage for more information and to sign up.  We look forward to working with you in support of this important education reform!

Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act De-Funded

Funding for the Javits program has been eliminated for 2011 as part of the final deal made late last week between the White House and Congress to fund federal agencies and programs through September 30, 2011.

Although this small program has received funding for more than 20 years, it couldn’t withstand the intense pressure to cut programs that didn’t have both White House and Congressional support.  In the case of the Javits program, you’ll recall that the president proposed elimination (through consolidation) of the Javits program in his budget submissions for both fiscal years 2011 and 2012. 

In response to the news, NAGC President Ann Robinson said, "NAGC is extremely disappointed that the continuing resolution will eliminate the sole federal program focused on meeting the needs of gifted students. At the very time we should be redoubling our commitment to these students -- especially to advanced students from underserved backgrounds -- Congress and the White House have chosen to perpetuate this neglect. This is a classic example of making short-sighted, short-term decisions rather than taking the long view of our nation's need to invest in the development of talented human capital."

The fiscal year 2012 process has already begun, but is expected to be contentious.  Our supporters in Congress have co-signed letters to the appropriations committees in support of the program; we’ll see what can be done to re-start the funding stream.