Title IX was created to give female students equal access to athletic programs.
That’s a good thing.
It’s also good that the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, appointed by the U.S. Department of Education, voted Thursday to make minimal changes to Title IX’s current status, rather than the extensive alterations proposed.
The bad thing is how terrible Title IX’s focus has become. Instead of simply prohibiting discrimination based on gender in schools that receive federal funding, Title IX is pitting men against women.
Title IX’s guidelines do not state that men’s athletic programs must lose opportunities for women to gain them. That ignorant decision is left to the school administration. People need to stop complaining about losing chances because there is no proof men’s opportunities have decreased.
In fact, according to the U. S. General Accounting Office, between 1981 and 1999 NCAA schools added 135 men’s soccer programs, 82 basketball programs and 85 in baseball.
But the public never hears anything about that.
Also gone unheard is the $4 million squandered per year on coaches’ salaries. Perhaps the coaches who are complaining about program reduction should first look at where the money flowing out of their pockets came from.
Or better yet, look at the cars they’re driving, the hotels they’re staying in while on the road and the mini conglomeration that football and basketball teams have become. Obviously Title IX has some flaws. However, those errors though are not a result of women gaining equality. The root of the evil is the inflated expense from money being spent unwisely.
Men and women should not be placed against each other. If these institutions of higher learning used their own teachings, they would realize sensible budgeting could enhance chances for all.
In 1972, there were almost 300,000 women playing high school sports. These numbers show that Title IX was necessary to boost the number. As a result, there are now almost three million women athletes in America.
If the commission’s proposals pass, women will have to prove their interest in sports in order to have the right to participate and be treated equally.
That is completely absurd. A female should not have to confirm her fascination for a sport-especially if a man is not being questioned.
Dominique Drake for the Famuan