The Gathering Storm of Title IX Enforcement
It has been a terrible Spring season for colleges across the country under pressure from the Title IX gender quota. Many schools have been forced to eliminate athletic programs, most notably James Madison University which cut seven men’s teams – the most ever axed at one time by any school. Scores of other schools have had to tighten their roster caps on men’s teams – strictly limiting the number of athletes that may participate.
Just last week, quota advocates released a litigation hit list targeting schools that don’t measure up to Title IX onerous proportionality requirement.
But if the gender politics activists and their partners in the trial bar get their way, the pressure is about to get vastly worse. That’s because, incredibly, those groups now have their sights set on imposing the quota on America’s high schools.
Take a look at what they’ve said in the national press in just the last few days:
Sports Illustrated, quoting Donna Lopiano of the Women’s Sports Foundation: “The number of women participating in high school and college sports is never going to “catch up” to its male counterparts until athletics administrators are willing to temporarily freeze the budgetary and participation growth of men’s sports. For every new opportunity created for women at the high school or college level, it is matched by one or more new opportunities for men.”
L.A. Times, citing Marcia Greenberger of the National Women’s Law Center: “Greenberger said she supports the continued application of the proportionality test on high schools.”
Associated Press, citing WSF founder Billie Jean King: “King thinks the future emphasis on equity will move into the high schools. ‘I think we should go to elementary schools,’ she said. ‘I think parents and taxpayers and teachers and everyone have to try to always get things equal.’”
There’s a lot to be alarmed about here – particularly since athletic participation in high schools and lower schools dwarfs that of colleges. But aside from the policy implications, these remarks from King and Lopiano are just reprehensible. Lopiano – who claims to be a sports advocate – is explicitly telling high schools to cap the number of boys who participate in sports. King goes further still and wants to see the same thing happen to young children in elementary schools. What is she imagining, roster caps on the dodge ball team? Limited access to the monkey bars?
Groups like the National Women’s Law Center and the Women’s Sports Foundation love to pretend that there are alternative ways for schools to comply with Title IX and that the effects of the enforcement are entirely benign. Every once in a while, though, they show their true colors. For anyone in doubt about how far they’ll take their harmful agenda, these latest statements should clear up a lot.
[For a collection of other outrageous Title IX policy arguments from these and other quota champions, check out these greatest hits.]