The interpretation of Title IX in sports and education is surrounded by controversy. Title IX was designed with the intention of guaranteeing equality in sport between men and women. While it seems clear that some type of compensation mechanism is necessary, there has been quite a bit of controversy in education regarding the interpretation of Title IX. Sports in particular contain many examples where Title IX has led to the end of varsity sports teams, all in a misconstrued attempt to equalize sports for both genders.
Rod Paige, the Secretary of Education, established the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics in mid-2002. The COA, as the commission is abbreviated, is tasked with ensuring equity for all athletes in college by finding ways to improve compliance. and greater opportunities for beneficiaries. The primary goal of the COA was to collect information, analyze it, and obtain public input with the goal of making the application of federal standards used to ensure that men and women, boys and girls have equal opportunities and participation in athletics.
Managing the COA was Cynthia Cooper along with Ted Leland, who served with Rod Paige as co-chairs. Cynthia, a former player for the Houston Comets, coached the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and was a member of the women’s basketball team at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics. Leland is the director of athletics at Stanford University.
COA held 4 town hall meetings in San Diego, Atlanta, Colorado Springs and Chicago. The purpose of these meetings was to give the public an opportunity to comment on Title IX now, in the past, and in the future. In early 2003, the commission gave its final report. The report made 23 recommendations to the Ministry of Education. Many of the recommendations were unanimous, but the controversial ones were approved by 8-5 votes. The disputed votes concerned the compliance of athletes without a scholarship for the first test along with the granting of surveys of interest for determination of compliance for the third test. However, Rod Paige stated that he would only consider votes that passed unanimously. These required the Department of Education:
* Show your continued and unwavering support for boys and girls, women and men to have equal opportunities.
* Ensure uniform application of the statute in the US.
* Ensure that each of the 3 tests that governed compliance with the status had the same weighting.
* Make sure schools appreciate that the Department of Education was not in favor of cutting equipment to adhere to the statute (Title IX, 2008).
Patsy T. Mink was the principal author of the education law that guarantees all people equal opportunity in education. The Act that was formulated in 1972 was previously known as Title IX of the Education Amendments and, in general, establishes that no one should be prevented from enjoying the benefits of a certain educational program or a certain activity that has assistance funding from the federal government based on your sex. The biggest impact of Title IX has been on athletics in both high school and college, even though the original statute did not refer to athletics. The statute has broad coverage of educational activities, discrimination complaints in mathematics, science education, other aspects of academic life, for example, the ability to use the dormitory and other health care facilities. The same status applies to activities like cheerleading, clubs, and school bands, which are non-sports activities. However, the statute’s requirements exempt social sororities and fraternities such as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Boys State along with Girls State, which are gender-specific (Title IX, 2008).
The Jimmy Carter administration devised an interpretation of the statute when the Department of Health, Education and Welfare introduced a “3-prong test” of compliance for institutions in the late 1970s. The three prongs are as follows:
* 1st bullet: That the athletic opportunities provided be proportional to the number of students enrolled or
* 2nd point: exhibit greater athletic opportunities for the sex that is underrepresented or
* Third aspect: the underrepresented sexual interest together with the capacity must be adapted in a total and effective way.
To demonstrate adherence to Title IX, any institution that is a recipient of federal funds must demonstrate compliance with any of the three points (Title IX, 2008).
The Federal Government has issued new guidelines regarding the implementation of Title IX. Title IX has made it possible for more women to participate in sports, but the new guidelines have allowed schools to reduce sports opportunities if they discover through online surveys that students are not interested.
However, critics were quick to point out that these new guidelines have significantly weakened the law in place for the past 33 years, which had prohibited discrimination based on sex in schools that received federal funds.
Under the new guidelines, the Department of Education has allowed schools to show that they are offering opportunities by asking students to fill out an online form to show their interest in sports. Schools are free to notify students of a survey via email. In the event that the surveys garner few responses, schools can still go ahead and use the limited responses to argue against forming new teams in a given sport of the genre that is not adequately represented. For its part, the Department of Education agreed that the level of response may be low, but continued to state that this will be interpreted as a lack of interest on the part of the gender in question.
Chaundry expressed concern that students might not open the email. However, not everyone was against the new guidelines, as College Sports Council director Eric Pearson claimed that the new guidelines were a good alternative to the gender quota. He went on to add that it would be easier for universities, along with schools, to argue her case in court if they have fewer women in a given athletic program compared to the total number of students at the school or university. The rule has been controversial, especially in some schools where less popular male sports, such as wrestling, had to be eliminated to balance the number of women and men participating in athletics against the total number of students at the school or university.
Well, many people will argue that Title IX has been good for women’s sports. To a large extent that is true, but what has been the price for that? The law was based on the premise that universities receiving federal funds could not use sex as a means of discrimination. However, in trying to solve the problem of less participation by women in sports, Title IX has actually discriminated against men! This issue has been discussed several times before: the Department of Health, Education and Welfare made it a requirement for schools to ensure that the selection of sports along with the level of competition would suit the abilities and interests of both genders.
This is most likely not a surprise; men show greater interest in sports than women, in the same way that boys show less interest in training equipment than girls. Some universities have had a hard time finding enough women to participate in sports. To show this more clearly, a wrestling coach explained it this way, with 1000 boys interested in a given sport and 100 girls interested in the same sport, you will end up with 100 boys along with 100 girls having the opportunity. This raises many questions. This issue of proportionality is so strict that even without a scholarship, playing on a given team is impossible because the numbers don’t even out.
The Office for Civil Rights established this stringency in proportionality in 1979. However, the original law clearly states that Title IX should not be construed to mean that one gender should be discriminated against in the event that there is an imbalance in the number of people. of the two sexes participating in a given sport. Therefore, even with the benefits that the law has brought to the sports field, it has led to discrimination against men, especially in sports commonly known (erroneously) as minors.
Football
In the last two years there have been significant advances in racial and gender equality. Pay differences between members of various races have been the subject of study for many years. Gender discrimination and the underrepresentation of minorities in head coaching positions under the auspices of Title IX has been a topic of much discussion. This website wishes to provide you with summaries of summaries, reviews of scholarly literature, and articles from mainstream media, etc., showing the disintegration of coaches along with players in major professional sports leagues due to racism.
Many people continue to wonder if football in this country is institutionally racist, since generations past had to deal with racism in the NFL. Of the 276 coaching and management positions in professional soccer, only six people are black. About twenty-two percent of the players are African American, but only two percent are in management. However, the good thing is that management has recognized that there is actually an issue that needs their attention. The Premier League, the Football Association, the League Manager’s Association along with the Football League have joined the PFA. They agree that there is an urgent need to find any aspect of the selection criteria that may be discriminating against blacks so that in the future positions will be filled on merit alone.
It is well known that Title IX aims to ensure the equality of female athletes with their male counterparts in various sports. However, there is more than sports; there is theater, other extracurricular activities, band, etc.
Thus, for athletic programs, these are the Title IX requirements:
* Women and men should have equal opportunities in sports
* Women must receive funds/scholarships that are equivalent or in line with their participation; this can be found at the Women’s Sports Foundation.
* Women should get benefits similar to men. These include training, practice facilities, travel and assignments, etc.
Title IX is designed to promote equality in sports between men and women. It helps to have some sort of equalizing force in place; however, there are many problems with the way courts interpret Title IX. Title IX has created quite a bit of controversy in education, and particularly in sports. There are many cases where Title IX has led to the end of certain college sports teams. It is time to correct the loopholes and illogical parts of Title IX.