A special needs boy was voted out of kindergarten after the forced his classmates to vote whether or not he deserved to be in class! As expected, the school district is not speaking about the matter and trying to control the fallout. CBS News interviewed the mother and her little boy. You can watch the video below.

This teacher’s conduct was despicable. The school district’s actions haven’t been much better. This situation could easily happen to any gifted child as well. What if your gifted child was bored because regular classwork was too easy for him? What if your child was disruptive because they had nothing else to do? Their teacher could ask to have them voted out of the classroom!

Every child has a right to an appropriate education for their skill level. Teachers who conduct themselves the way this teacher did, should have their teaching licenses revoked and never be allowed to teach again in ANY state. Our education system is messed up enough as it is, and we don’t need moronic teachers messing it up even more!

This is, in many ways, an absolutely terrible idea. “Gifted” and “Special Needs” are two extremely different categories, and the casual suggestion of diverting resources from the latter to educate the former is an insult to the very real needs of many “Special Needs” students.

I can understand his point. A gifted child certainly doesn’t have the same special needs that a physically impaired child has. However, the needs of gifted children are definitely special. Many states differ in their definition of what a “special needs” child is, but in Kansas, a “special needs” child is defined as one for which the regular classroom setting is inadequate. I think we can all agree that the regular classroom is indeed inadequate for gifted children.

In fact, many states treat gifted students and “special needs” students the same by not funding programs separately. In Kansas, gifted funding comes out of the general special education funding used for “special needs” students. Because of the education system today is focused on NCLB, I’d argue that instead of ‘diverting resources from the latter to educate the former’ as Prof. Orzel states, just the opposite is happening- schools are diverting funds away from gifted programs to better educate “special needs” students.

Prof. Orzel proposes that we begin to separately fund “gifted” and “special needs” programs separately, which I whole-heartedly support. Unfortunately, that will never happen unless states begin to change funding guidelines. Florida is one state considering a change- let’s hope other states follow.