Is a federal mandate the answer?If so, what was the question?

This article questions whether advocacy efforts in gifted education have been misguided over the years by overemphasis on achieving a federal mandate. We begin by reviewing common legal arguments for attaining special legal rights for gifted children. Next, using a Creative Problem Solving framework, we reframe the mess as “the general state of availability of gifted and talented programs,” and review a growing body of literature that indicates that opportunities vary widely according to geographic and economic conditions and largely as a function of local autonomy over gifted education programming decisions. From these data, we arrive at a new problem statement: “In what ways might we develop policies to create more equitable and adequate distribution of opportunities for gifted children?” Our focus is on the importance of state financial solutions to existing inequities.