> That... is the same as it has been for a long long time.

It really was not, at least in Seattle. Seattle had a pretty good gifted program for a very long time. If you got into that - you can get a very good education in a public school. They gutted it in last few years under the banner of equity.

It still exists in the suburbs like e.g. Bellevue or Redmond, but even there it is being watered down. I have 2 kids in various stages of gifted education and follow various covnersations about it and it definitely goes downhill.