I went to a magnet school in FL. Magnet schools exists but I don't believe it has much to do with being gifted or money.

When I went, as long as you had 2 / 3 gpa ( B / C avg) you got to sign up and stay in the program (2 gpa per year to stay). Didn't have to do anything else to sign up or stay in the program, as long as you had a pretty mid grade average and there were spots to be in it, bar was set low but could have just been a FL thing.

Looking back at how many people I was in those classes with, I only recall about 5 people actually go into the specific field the magnet was for personally.

I get scared when the Heat score so high in the first half since they end flopping the second half...