Former senator: Title IX at risk
Christopher Barrett
Issue date: 11/9/05 Section: News
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"You need to understand there is a dark cloud on the horizon for women, especially participation for women in sports," former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh II said. "There are steps being taken right now under the guise of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to try and lower the bar of compliance."
In 1972, Bayh introduced the now-called Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act that requires schools receiving federal money to offer equal opportunities to both genders.
The former Democratic senator from Indiana said the law has had a "profound" impact on involving more women in sports. But he warned a March 2005 U.S. Department of Education clarification is flawed. The clarification allows schools to use e-mail surveys to determine if they are meeting the law.
"They're not even reliable and the real sleeper in this so-called clarification in sending out the e-mail. And in determining what the results are, you can determine those who do not reply are uninterested," he said. "That will guarantee, or going to preordain, that the interest is not there."
He urged audience members to write Spellings and their representatives.
"Please let them know you're concerned and want them to tell the secretary to get off the dime, retract that clarification and get back to equality," Bayh said to applause from the audience.
He added later, "I do not know why [she introduced the clarification]. She's a very bright lady but she's very wrong on this one."