Please continue to hold schools acountable to the state by submitting a 5 year plan .  This gives school districts accountability which will encourage more follow through on the plan.  Please also continue to specify that funds given for the use of the gifted program must be used for that purpose.  In SOL driven schools it is much too tempting to funnel funds to the lower acheivers to raise the over all SOL scores for the district.

If you take away this sort of accountability from smaller, rural school districts, their now stuggling gifted programs will suffer even more.

As a parent of 3 identified gifted students and another who may be indentified this fall, I implore you to not make the proposed changes.