Enhancing Public Support for Funding Gifted Education

Establishing long-term, quality programs for gifted students hinges on public support and resources. The IEA-P included questions assessing the public’s inclination to support spending state or federal funds on behalf of gifted students. Another aim of this series of questions was to determine whether support for allocating public funds to gifted education would change as the result of hearing the ideas presented in the poll. Accordingly, funding questions were asked to the entire respondent group, verbatim, early in the poll and again at the end to gauge the impact of poll participation on public attitudes. The questions were asked first directly following the terminology and benchmark questions about general education (Chapter 2); they were asked again at the end of the poll (see Appendix A for poll questions).

Early Evaluation of Public Support for Federal or State Funding of Gifted Education

A majority of Americans expressed support for federal or state funding for gifted education even before exposure to the issues raised in the IEA-P, with 64% of the aggregate group indicating support for spending at the state level and 63% in favor of spending at the federal level. A summary of the poll results for these questions is in Table 7.1 and 7.2.

Early evaluation of support for federal funding. In the early evaluation of attitudes towards federal funding for gifted education, most Americans supported increasing funding for gifted education “A Little” (45%), and around 1 in 5 supported increasing federal funding “A Lot” (19%). One-third of Americans believed funding should stay about the same (32%) and the remainder (4%) thought spending for gifted students should decrease either a lot or a little (Figure 7.1).

Among lower-income Hispanics, 30% believed that funding for gifted education should “Increase a Lot,” as did 29% of higher-income Blacks. Among lower-income Black respondents, 57% supported an increase; they were the least likely to support more federal funding for gifted education.

Early evaluation of support for state funding. A majority of the American public, 63% of respondents, were in favor of increasing state funding for gifted education at the beginning of the poll. The 63% majority was comprised of 20% who approved of increasing state funding a lot, and 43% who approved of increasing it a little.

Education Influencers. Among subgroups, Opinion Elites (74%) were most likely to express support for increasing state funding, and 31% indicated that state funding should increase a lot. A majority of Parents also supported an increase in state funding in the early evaluation (68%), with one in four in support of substantial increases (24%).

Racial/Ethnic Groups. Most subgroups voiced similarly strong support for either state or federal funding for gifted education except for higher-income Hispanics, who were more likely to support increases in federal funding (69%) over state funding (54%). In fact, at 54%, higher-income Hispanics were the least likely of any group to support an increase in state funding for gifted education in the early evaluation. Higher-income Black respondents were most likely to support large increases in state funding (29%). Overall and across all groups there was little support for cutting state funding for gifted education.

End Evaluation of Public Support for Federal or State Funding 

After responding to two dozen questions on the topic of gifted education, respondents’ attitudes towards state and federal funding changed, predominantly in favor of increasing funding (Figures 7.2 and 7.3). Some changes were dramatic, with shifts of over 15% in many groups and 20 to 30% in others. Overall, support for increased funding for gifted education programs was uniformly high, with no decided preference for whether the funding was provided at either the federal or state level. 

End evaluation of support for federal funding. In the end assessment, 81% of the overall sample expressed some level of support for improving federal funding for gifted education, an increase of 17% from the early evaluation. Moreover, around 80% of each disaggregated subgroup supported some level of increase in federal expenditure. A majority of this change is accounted for by a 16% decrease in the number of people who believed funding should be “Kept About the Same” and a parallel 17% increase in the number of people who believed federal funding should increase “A Lot.”

Education Influencers. Three-quarters of Opinion Elites favored an increase in federal funding for gifted education early in the poll; this grew to 88% in the end evaluation. The number of Parents supporting more federal funding for gifted education also increased, from 70% in the early evaluation to 86% in the end evaluation. Again, the change was due to an increase in the number of Parents who thought federal funds should increase “A Lot.”

Racial/Ethnic Groups. Support for federal funding increased 15% among both Black and White respondents from early- to end- evaluation, and 13% among Hispanic respondents. There was a 20% increase in the number of Black respondents who believed funding should increase “A Lot” and increases of 18% and 17% among Hispanic and White respondents.

Support for improved funding for gifted education increased more than 10% for all race/ethnicity x income groups except lower-income Hispanics, where the increase was seven percent. The most substantial change was among lower-income Black respondents: in this group, 57% supported additional federal funding for gifted education in the early evaluation and 85% in the end evaluation. Nearly 20% of higher-income Blacks changed their responses in favor of increased federal funding in the end evaluation, for a total of 86%, the same rate as higher-income Hispanics.

End evaluation of support for state funding. Public support for state funding for gifted education also increased in the end evaluation, and at rates similar to federal funding. In the overall respondent group, the support for state funding increased 17% over the early evaluation and increases of 15% or more were observed in all analysis subgroups. The number of people who believed state funding should be kept the same decreased 16%, suggesting that many respondents changed their position from a neutral stance to more active support for increased funds.

Education Influencers. Opinion Elites who changed their minds between the early and end evaluation tended to favor increased funding, with a 13% overall increase in support, and an increase of 11% in the number of who believed that state funding should increase “A Lot.” More Parents changed their positions, from 70% in favor of increased funding in the early evaluation to 86% in the end evaluation. A 17% change was observed in the number of Parents in favor of increasing state funding “A Lot,” from 24% in the early evaluation to 41% in the end evaluation.

Racial/Ethnic Groups. Increases in support for state funding for gifted education was highest among Hispanics, with a 22% increase in the number of people supporting more funding for gifted students. More Hispanics than any other group changed their response to “Increase a Lot” in the end evaluation (23%). The rate of change was especially high among higher-income Hispanics (33%), accompanied by parallel drop in the number of Hispanics who believed that funding should be “Kept the Same” (34%). Twenty percent of Black respondents also changed their answer to “Increase A Lot”, resulting in a change from 60% to 80% between the early and end evaluations.

Synopsis 

Across many and varied questions in the IEA-P, the public asserted their support for ensuring an appropriate education for all gifted students. When asked directly, Americans were clear that they support allocating public funds to gifted education programs.

• Despite their belief that public schools are doing a better job addressing the needs of gifted students than other groups of students, IEA-P respondents were overwhelmingly in favor of improving funding for gifted education programs.
• Even when asked early in the poll, a 60% majority of respondents supported allocating state or federal funds for gifted education programs, including over 70% of Opinion Elites and Parents.
• Support for state or federal funding for gifted education increased anywhere from 10 to 33 percentage points across subgroups after brief, passive exposure to information about gifted education. In the end evaluation, 81% of all respondents indicated some level of support for increased state or federal funding, including 88% of Opinion Elites.
• The number of people who thought gifted education funding should increase “A Lot” increased between 13 and 22% across analysis groups.
• Poll respondents had no clear preference for state or federal funding for gifted education.
• Few people thought that funding for gifted education should decrease “A Lot” or even “A Little” in either the early or the end evaluation.