What the National Women’s Law Center Doesn’t Want You to Know About Title IX and High School Sports

In a few minutes, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) will be holding a teleconference to announce a “substantial Title IX initiative” aimed at high school sports. To say the least, high school athletes and their parents ought to be concerned about this announcement.

If things take the same course as they have in college athletics, that means the NWLC and its allies want to bring the same quota system to high school athletics that they’ve been able to install in the nation’s colleges and universities. According to most sources, 1.3 million more boys participate in high school athletics than girls. If you put quotas into the mix, the quickest way for the nation’s high schools to comply with that sort of quota would be to put those 1.3 million boys on the sidelines.

But that’s just the start of the havoc that sort of Title IX enforcement is already causing in America’s high schools. In the past, we’ve reported on how a Title IX law suit in New York has overloaded the city’s already crowded soccer fields. In Pennsylvania, federal investigations have been triggered by the mere formation of football booster clubs. In Florida, we’ve seen parents who were willing to fully fund a varsity baseball team at a Florida high school turned down by school administrators who don’t want to run afoul of Title IX. And in Kentucky, we’ve seen high school boys kept off the soccer field because of concerns about Title IX.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the media coverage all day long, and we’ll be sure to chime in when events warrant. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: On the call, the NWLC announced that it had filed administrative complaints against 12 school districts around the nation, saying that they believed they didn’t offer equal opportunities for girls in sports.

Just as an aside, if you took a look at extracurricular activities at the nation’s high schools, you’d find a gender imbalance in favor of girls in every activity except sports and band.

In short, the NWLC has fired the first shot in its effort to bring gender quotas to high school athletics. This is what they’ve been planning for years, and now the battle is being joined.

The school districts are Chicago; Clark County, Nev.; Columbus, Ohio; Deer Valley (Ariz.); Henry County, Ga.; Houston; Irvine, Calif.; New York City; Oldham County, Ky.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Wake County, N.C.; and Worcester, Mass. On the call, Marcia Greenberger, co-President of the NWLC, said that the districts weren’t picked because they were the worst performers. Here at the CSC, we think they were chosen because they represent the best targets for law suits.

We’re getting in touch with reporters who were on the call. Also, please follow our actions on Twitter for updates and conversation in real time.