Denver now offers its gifted-and-talented program at three schools scienceteaching - Baker, Place and Smiley - so students get special instruction near home. But Barbara Neyrinck, head of gifted-and-talented programs for Denver Public Schools, said the programs scienceteaching need to be consolidated to make them stronger, more of a priority and more appealing School administrators proposed creating an expanded special education program for high school students Wednesday in response to the rising costs of out-of-district placements. The goal is to keep special education students in the district, Superintendent Randy Bell said. The program, proposed during the School Board’s business meeting, would target high school students and involve both Hudson and Litchfield. The biggest area of the special education budget is out-of-district costs, said Leslie Derbyshire, special services director. In addition to tuition costs,

with a national average of almost $6,000 per student [3]. Homeschooled children represent over seven billion dollars out of reach of local government schools and, at its current growth rate, each year more than another billion dollars slips away. Politically, homeschoolers are a force to be reckoned with when their rights are endangered. The most highly publicized and effective example of their growing political clout occurred in 1994 when the House of Representatives inserted language into an educational appropriations scienceteaching bill that would have required all teachers to be credentialed. Homeschoolers perceived this provision as a threat to their autonomy and overwhelmed phone and fax lines to their representatives until the credentialing language was removed by a 424-1 vote. Homeschooling’s economic and political impact is keenly felt by teacher unions,

The sheer number of homeschoolers represent a distinct threat to the hegemony of the government school monopoly. Qualitatively, the academic success of homeschoolers, measured by standardized test scores and recruitment by colleges [1], debunk the myth that parents need to hire credentialed experts to force children to learn. Homeschooling also refutes the “more money equals better education” mantra of teacher unions. The average homeschooling family spends approximately 10% of the per pupil costs associated with government schools [2] in achieving these academic results. Multiplied by the number of homeschoolers, even these modest amounts add up to a sizeable market attracting numerous educational entrepreneurs. Besides scienceteaching challenging the legitimacy of government schools, homeschoolers also pose a more direct economic threat. Funding for government schools is based on attendance,

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