In a speech to a conference on education of the gifted, S. P. Marland, Jr., the Assistant Secretary of Education, expressed the unlikelihood of another Sputnik's giving similar impetus to American support of two million gifted students as support was given to science instruction through the National Defense Education Act. Urging federal, state, and local leadership, he described problems of the gifted, such as women's entry into traditional masculine fields, and identification of talent among minorities and the poor. He explained that 1974-1975 budgetary limitations precluded new federal initiatives, and stressed that more important than money was the change in federal policy from program management to idea management, encompassing efforts to stimulate creative response and to serve as a link between the problem and those who could solve it. Cited were the Emergency School Aid Act, which will give grants to urban magnet schools to identify talent through programs for the gifted and career education; and the Office of Education for the Gifted, which has given a grant to the Illinois Department of Education to develop a national/state leadership training program, and has facilitated establishment of the Exploration Scholarship Program, supported by donations, whereby gifted students accompany scientists on summer explorations. (MC)