This is actually a great example of the flaw in the debate. NYC has a unique and byzantine school system that's unrecognizable to basically all Americans outside of NYC.

This means if you hear "eliminate this program because equity," and you grew up in the midwest where the gifted program didn't function at all like you describe or require much funding at all, this sounds completely nonsensical because we're not talking about the same thing.

I don't have an answer to this except that it's best discussed on a local case by case basis.