How Title IX Is Stifling High School Baseball in Florida

From Florida Today:

A well-meaning attempt by a group of parents to fund an extracurricular sport at a Brevard public high school could be blocked by concerns over gender and low-income discrimination.

Parents of about 35 Edgewood Jr./Sr. High students want to pay about $7,000 annually for a coach’s salary and other costs to turn a self-funded baseball club into a team sanctioned by the Florida High School Athletic Association.

The parents say the move would save the Brevard County school district money while also allowing their children to compete against other local FHSAA-sanctioned schools. Right now the Merritt Island school students are restricted to playing against senior little league teams, out-of-town teams visiting on holiday break or themselves.

So what’s the problem? According to the school district, part of the reason is Title IX:

In addition to the equity issue, Binggeli and his staff said in school board documents that an Edgewood baseball team would:

  • Violate Title IX laws against gender discrimination by creating an imbalance that would require the district to fund a softball team if female students showed interest.

We’ve said before that using proportionality to enforce Title IX in American high schools would result in boys being taken off the field or prevented from playing at all. Look no further for your evidence. The next time you see an “action alert” from a group like the American Association of University Women pushing for greater enforcement of Title IX in high schools, keep this situation in mind.

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