Dear Editor:I wish to compliment Ms. Maria Clark for being blessed with a gifted child that is on track to attend Cal Poly University. (Letters to the Editor, 1/13/11) I am a Cal Poly Electrical Engineering graduate myself and I know from personal experience that he will receive a magnificent education there. I consider the fantastic schools available in Downey as one of the great benefits of living here and I am in total agreement with Ms. Clark that DUSD does a magnificent job of educating our children even under severe budget limitations. If Special Education children are supported by federal laws it means that someone, probably a parent, lobbied and enlisted other parents to lobby Congress to pass those laws. These are actions that all of those concerned with improving the education of our children should emulate. The political process works but it takes a long time to achieve a particular goal. It behooves us to start a campaign to get our members of Congress to consider a program to better support our gifted students. While it may take a generation to accomplish this, we owe it to future generations to start working right away towards this goal. I, for one, will start a letter-writing campaign aimed to the California Congressional Delegation explaining what a great political idea it will be to address the needs of our gifted students since the future of our country depends on them more than in any other group. I am confident that it would be a good cause for a politician to support and I urge Ms. Clark and other involved parents to join me in lobbying Congress to create a plan to help our gifted students. -- Jorge Montero, Downey

********** Published: January 27, 2011 - Volume 9 - Issue 41