Proponents fear Bush administration might gut Title IX

[BrklynLiberal]

While this is not Breaking News, it deserves more attention during this finale of March Madness. It is actually another, and very subtle way the Bush Administration is attacking the role and rights of women in this society.

On the cusp of it's 30th anniversary, Title IX -- long viewed as the catalyst for the explosion in girls' and women's athletics -- is under siege, its supporters fear.

A flurry of nervous phone calls and e-mails has kicked up over the past few days in the close-knit community of women's athletics administration. At best, they suggest the statute has been threatened by a prominent lawsuit and a national columnist. The worst-case rumor scenario: President George Bush's administration soon will re-examine Title IX, the 1972 law that guarantees, among many other things, equal opportunities in athletics for males and females.
<snip>
"If it's true, that's disgraceful," Grant said. "I cannot believe that this president is considering this. What I think might happen is that he'll rile the parents of every young, talented girl and woman athlete -- that's what he's going to risk.
<snip>
Recent stories in national newspapers about the lawsuit have provoked discussion, but nothing fanned the flames of the debate like a column in the current issue of Newsweek by the conservative George Will. Under the headline "A Train Wreck Called Title IX," Will uses words like "nonsense" and "lunacy" to describe Title IX.
<snip>
"It is so frustrating to me that Title IX is in some jeopardy," Carpenter said, "because of bad, disingenuous decisions by college administrators who have chosen to ignore the fact that more than half their students are women. It's easier to blame Title IX, and to drag your feet for 20 years. President Bush, it seems, is following this back-door method."

Added Grant, "The Republicans, apparently, have been trying to reach out to women. Well, this would be a leap back to the 18th century. I cannot think that the members of congress will stand by and allow him to do this."

more...

http://espn.go.com/gen/womenandsports/020523garber.html

[camitche]

1. It's amazing how many abuses like this

manage to fly under the radar.

[Kerrytravelers]

2. In * world. females don't exist except to serve the men.

[unsavedtrash]

3. Equality case hits Supreme Court

School district: http://www.bhm.k12.al.us
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041127/NEWS/411270333&SearchID=73203865218171
By Jay Reeves
The Associated Press
November 27, 2004

BIRMINGHAM | It didn’t take long for coach Roderick Jackson to get tired of his girls basketball team practicing in the grimy little gym at Ensley High School, while the boys worked out in the nicer, newer one.

Built in 1908, the old gym was smaller than regulation, and its tan-and-white walls were covered with graffiti. The floor was slick, the hoops were the wrong size and the backboards were made of plywood, making it difficult for players to adjust to the Plexiglas ones used in games.

“There’s not any bounce. It makes them throw it up there harder," Jackson said.

Jackson complained, and, he claims, was temporarily removed as coach for griping. He sued the Birmingham Board of Education under the landmark Title IX law, which bars discrimination in schools, but lower federal courts ruled against him.

Tuesday, the Supreme Court hears Jackson’s case -- a dispute asking whether Title IX protects people who blow the whistle on gender bias,/sregardless of their sex.

The Bush administration and a broad spectrum of civil rights groups are backing Jackson, while groups representing the school board and nine states are/sopposing him.

The Birmingham school board denies any discrimination and argues that Congress never meant for Title IX to cover people who say they suffered retaliation for reporting gender discrimination against others.

Jackson, 39, says he never thought so much would come of his concerns. “I’ve been in the system, I figured it’d be worked out," he said between classes. “/s... But if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything."

And so he’s become an unlikely champion of gender equity, traveling to Washington earlier this month to accept an award from the National Women’s Law Center, which represents him in court.

He plans to attend the Supreme Court arguments, forcing him to miss a game for the first time in 18 years of volunteer and professional coaching.

He started work at Ensley High in 1999 and says the disparities between the girls and boys teams were soon clear.

Besides having to use the old gym, the girls sometimes rode to games in teachers’ and parents’ cars while the boys always used a bus, and the girls team didn’t get any money from ticket or concession sales. Also, the school axed the girls’ junior varsity team, while the JV boys kept playing.

“I thought it would get better," he said. “It didn’t."

Jackson began pushing for changes, writing letters and meeting with school officials all the way up to a deputy superintendent. He said he was met mainly with indifference, and colleagues warned him about pushing the issue.

“They said, `You better hush your mouth. You’re making problems for yourself,"' Jackson said. “They weren’t kidding."

Jackson said his job evaluations got worse, and he was removed as coach in May 2001, costing him nearly $7,000 annually in coaching pay. Because he had tenure, he kept teaching health and physical education.

Jackson sued under Title IX, claiming he lost the coaching position in retaliation for his complaints that the girls were victims of gender discrimination. A lower court threw out the case, agreeing with the board that the law doesn’t cover retaliation claims.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals backed the lower court, but the Supreme Court accepted the case in June.

School board attorney Kenneth L. Thomas said he cannot discuss why Jackson was removed as coach, a position he since reclaimed. “That would just be inviting another lawsuit," he said.

The Bush administration has sided with Jackson, arguing that people who lacked legal protection would be less likely to complain about gender bias. A coalition of 180 groups including the NAACP, the American Jewish Congress, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force also filed a brief backing Jackson.

“As our Constitution recognizes in the First Amendment’s protection of the rights of free expression and petition, the ability to exercise these rights unchilled by punishment is essential to the effective enforcement of all other rights," said the brief, filed by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Opponents, including the American Association of School Administrators, Alabama and eight other states, suggest Jackson could have sued under the First Amendment or other civil rights laws, but not Title IX.

“Teachers and coaches have plenty of protections if they feel like they are being retaliated against. They don’t really need Title IX," said Naomi Gittins, senior staff attorney for the National School Boards Association.

No matter the legal outcome, Jackson said things have gotten better since he sued.

He was rehired as Ensley’s girls coach on an interim basis last year, and the old gym has two new, regulation-sized hoops. The girls team now gets concession money, too.

But Jackson said his girls still usually have to practice in the chilly old gymnasium, and the boys are still in the nicer one.

“We don’t want anything better than anyone else," Jackson said. “We just want the same."

-- -- --

[The Doctor.]

4. I would keep an eye on ** while we're watching the Vatican.

While he may try to do away with title nine, I can attest that it is a very flawed piece of legislation.

While title IX has many benefits whicha can be directly linked to the greater success of women's athletics every year, it also makes unreasonable demands for parity.

I have heard that many colleges have been forced to shut down their men's athletics programs simply because they could not afford to run an equal budget for women's programs that women were not enrolling in.

They were paying for equipment, facilities, and staff for some of these programs, but very few if any women were signing up for the extraneous programs.
Sure - the women's soccer, crew, tennis, and swimming programs might have done ok, but because the colleges were forced by the bill to spend an equal amount on women's programs as on men's, the schools wound up throwing money away. So to solve this problem and stay within the confines of title IX, they cut the men's programs.

I've talked to some heartbroken kids who looked like they were going to have a great run at collegiate wrestling only to have their hopes dashed because the school coudn't afford to keep 'women's ice hockey'on the roster.

It is a statistical fact that women are 20 - 30% less likely to join sports than men. While I wish that were not the case - Title IX makes no allowance for that difference.

It would be a simple matter for the law to adress this on a by-student basis according to interest expressed by the students.

Then a proper proportion of allocated funds could be mandated.

While I realize that solutions are seldom this simple, I must contend that Title IX is broken and needs to be fixed.

Which programs usually fall under the budget ax?

Art, music, sports... in that order.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[nytemare]

6. That fucking pom-pom waving dickweed needs to leave title IX alone!

While his chickenhawk ass was still drinking, I was in Iraq. He waved pom-poms, and I played on a women's football team.

He will probably sugar coat it as wanting women to have the same opportunity he had to do bullshit and advance.

Athletics should always be an important part in development, teaching of teamwork, and really just how life is. I was grateful to be able to play softball in school, and football when I was in the army, and since then. It kept me out of trouble.

Women need to know that they can compete as well!