Thirty-Third Anniversary of Title IX

THIRTY-THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF TITLE IX

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise today to mark the 33rd anniversary of the enactment of title IX, a law that has opened doors to educational opportunities for countless women and girls across America.

Prior to passing title IX, roughly 295,000 girls participated in high school sports, and only about 25,000 played sports at the college level. When President Nixon signed the educational amendments of 1972 into law 33 years ago, skeptics claimed the law would do little to change women's participation in sports.

They could not have been more wrong. Recent data show that nearly 2.6 million high school girls and over 135,000 women in college participate in organized sports, constituting more than 40 percent of all high school athletes.

In Washington State, women at public colleges and universities represented less than one-third of most schools' athletes less than 15 years ago. Today, women represent 48 percent of athletes at public institutions of higher education in our State. As the numbers of girls participating in sports has increased, there has been a decrease in the number of girls who drop out of school, smoke, drink alcohol or have unwanted pregnancies. What's more, adolescent girls that participate in organized sports enjoy improved physical and mental health throughout their lives.

Today, 1 in every 2.5 girls participates in athletics, which is an 800-percent increase in participation rates since the enactment of title IX. Yet attempts to weaken title IX persist. Last March, the Department of Education issued a policy guidance that would weaken Title IX. The new clarification would allow institutions to avoid offering sports opportunities to women if a sufficient number of the student body failed to respond to an e-mail survey expressing interest in the program. This allows universities to use what may be highly questionable, potentially inaccurate e-mail survey results to prove that the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex have been accommodated, as title IX requires.

I am deeply concerned that this policy guidance represents the current administration's repeated attempts to diminish the enforcement of this very important law and believe that e-mail surveys will likely underestimate the need to expand athletic opportunities for women. The growth of opportunity for women and girls should not hang on the outcome of such informal means of data collection.

Our Nation has taken great strides toward equity, and title IX has played a significant role in that success. Millions of girls have access to opportunities that their mothers never knew. However, there is still much to be done before we can say that males and females are treated equability in education. Further progress hinges on our continued commitment to the principles of title IX and proper enforcement of the law.

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