Public Policy

By Public Policy Chair

Rosemary Cunningham

cunninghamrt@comcast.net

Urge the Senate to Enforce Title IX in our High Schools

Text Box: Title IX's impact on women's athletic participation is one of the country's greatest success stories. In the past three decades, Title IX's fight against sex discrimination in federally-funded schools and educational programs in the U.S. has led to a 400 percent increase in the rate of female participation in college sports and a more than 800 percent increase in participation at the high school level. Despite the significant gains girls and women have made since the enactment of Title IX, a significant drawback to the law's enforcement at the high school level involves the lack of data reporting. The U.S. Department of Education has not required these schools to report athletic opportunity, participation, and funding statistics to any higher authority. Colleges are required to

Text Box: report this data, it's time our high schools are too. AAUW strongly supports the High School Sports Information Collection Act (S. 518), which would require high schools to report basic information on the number of female and male students in their athletic programs and the expenditures made for their sports teams. Sadly, this bill only has five cosponsors. The Senate is currently working on adding provisions of this bill in the No Child Left Behind Act. An increase in the number of cosponsors will demonstrate support for including the provisions in NCLB. While members of Congress have not yet returned to Washington, their staff has, and they are busily preparing for their bosses' return. Now is a

Text Box: great time to make your support for this bill known to your senators and their offices, even if you have already done so in the past. Take Action!
It's time we know the status of Title IX in America's high schools. To urge your senators to cosponsor the High School Sports Information Collection Act, just paste the following URL into your Internet browser. Then follow the instructions to send your message. http://capwiz.com/aauw/issues/alert/?alertid=9521986&type=CO