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...the requirement is that the "subgroups" MUST reach minimal standards....all available resources will be channel toward meeting the mandate...at the expense of non-subgroup kids who have the potential to achieve better than just "proficient"

Did you follow the link to court cases I provided above? It's been going that way for a good 25 years now. Parents of gifted students can demand extra for their children, but most end up either providing it themselves or putting their children in private school.

My point is, there's a big difference between saying all students have to meet a minimum standard and saying that all students must perform at the same level.

Ok here, I am with you all of the way.
I teach SPECIAL ED in high school.
We have a GIANT school (way too big IMHO) and our special ed percentage is HUGE TOO!
Now, this is NOT an inner city school with tons of "special interest" types calling their kids "Special ED" for the heck of it, this is a GREAT school with massive #'s of college bound students, and a great special ed dept. with some pretty good life goals for the students.
That being said, we have over 200 on IEP's out of a total of about 1900.
The complaining that I am hearing is not about the regular student body passing (because they will), it is about the special ed requirement. They are ALL included. Ironic, since for years people have been lobbying TO GET THEM INCLUDED!
Well, now with the special ed kiddos on the same list of pass/not pass as the regular ed kids, the school is being evaluated incorrectly. Their should be a better way to evaluate them, or count them differently.
The regular ed staff should not be "punished" by poor school scores if they are doing their jobs well, as the ACT is supposed to reflect.
I am in a hurry here, so sorry if I am not so cogent.

I think the IDEA is a good one...but at our school we are feeling the "largeness" of it.

Parents of gifted students can demand extra for their children, but most end up either providing it themselves or putting their children in private school.

This is why I decided to homeschool my gifted oldest daughter

My point is, there's a big difference between saying all students have to meet a minimum standard and saying that all students must perform at the same level.

In principle, yes. In practice, no

One thing I noticed in my daughters school, before I took her out, was the practice of having the smarter kids helping tutor the slower kids. I could see where this was going.

In a system where the game is to have certain subgroups meet minimum standards, the irresistible temptation will be to have the more capable students drafted as unpaid labor to help the less capable ones. Teachers' attentions will be focused on the process of the less-capable subgroups. The net effect will be to rob the more capable ones of any education beyond what's needed to meet the minimum proficiency standard.

In a school-system with finite resources, giving more resources to A must come at the cost of taking resources away from B.

Being sure that certain subgroups "get it", and the elimination of tracking in school systems these days (it was phased out of my school district 8 years ago) means that the class must not progress through material at any rate faster than what can be absorbed by the slowest students. This means that the fastest students will not be challenged in the course room.

The rebellion is starting. Time magazine has an article about Virginia seeking to leave the program. Utah wants to also. At least twenty states are in rebellion.

If middle-class parents feel that their kids' needs are not being met by the public school system, they will abandon the public school system, and watch it crash and burn