I disagree. Gifted programs exist and students in it receive more personal and one-on-one support. Personally I didn't pay for my gifted program (or my parents, of course) throughout the entirety of elementary and middle school. Only in high school did I have to pay for the extra exams, which was approximately $400 (I shoveled snow to pay for it).
Kids from poorer households are much less likely to be in these programs. Of course plenty of individuals defy this, but from a broad sociological context mostly kids from wealthier educated backgrounds end up in "gifted" programs.
In the US household income is one of the most reliable ways to predict academic success. We're already seeing Covid widen some of these existing gaps.
This is also kind of irrelevant to the parent article. All kids lost out during the pandemic. Without additional efforts beyond what was happening pre-pandemic, everyone will slide down a little.
That's very true. I think that having a target that a student or parent can push for, that is independent of wealth (directly, if the program is free), is a really good thing to have.
I don't have any magical solutions other than that. I do understand that being able to provide resources for a student in early life is directly influenced by wealth and greatly improves the odds of success. How do we encourage this among parents who don't have this wealth? My mom used to wake me up early on weekends and put me up on the counter, making me recite times tables. Small things like that, that can help equalize the playing field because they are not directly tied to wealth, should be encouraged for parents.
