Thompson: Make Gifted Programs Local

City Comptroller William Thompson has issued a letter to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein demanding that the Department of Education (DOE) rethink its handling of gifted and talented programs across the City.

As it stands right now, the DOE's gifted program is set up minus rhyme or reason, with many students bused out of their own neighborhood to take advantage of the program. In his letter, Thompson tells Klein that he should create more gifted programs and let gifted students attend classes right in their own neighborhoods.

"It's mystifying why at the same time the City wants to save bus transportation costs by cutting services across the City and giving youngsters Metrocards it is unnecessarily busing another group of students out of their neighborhoods to gifted and talented programs when such programs already exist in their communities," said Thompson.