The Supreme Court is once again considering adjustments to Title

IX, but this time it might actually be successful.

Title IX, passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972,

calls for gender equality in federally funded educational programs

and has had a major impact on women’s athletics. Since the law went

into effect, collegiate athletics alone have seen an increase in

women’s participation of more than 400 percent.

Individuals are encouraged to speak out and file law- suits when

they believe the law is not being upheld, but recently it has come

to the attention of the court that those individuals could be

facing retaliation for voicing their beliefs.

There is no whistle-blower clause to prevent a vindictive school

administration from punishing or firing a coach or player who files

suit against the school for discrimination under Title IX. The fact

that something so obviously important has been overlooked in this

code for so long points strongly to the fact that Title IX needs

revision.

In 2002, the Secretary of Education appointed a commission to

conduct an extensive investigation into the implementation of Title

IX in the area of athletics. The commission presented a report in

February 2003 citing its recommendations of ways to update the

30-year-old code.

The commission researched ways to develop the standards of

compliance beyond the numerical monetary comparison of men’s and

women’s teams that caused many schools to cut popular men’s teams.

It recognized that there is no simple, clear-cut way to ensure

women are allowed the same athletic opportunities as men. Under

pressure from lobbyists for women’s athletics, the Bush

administration largely rejected the commission’s recommendations,

which would have changed the standards for compliance with the

law.

The commission found the problems with Title IX and attempted to

recommend ways to resolve them. Suggestions that could have

maintained the upsurge of women’s athletic involvement while being

sensitive to the popularity of men’s athletics and the need for

them as a source of revenue were ignored.

The fact is that civil rights laws are in constant need of

revision. Failing to admit there are problems with Title IX and

failing to see that it needs improvement causes more harm than

good.

Even if the court decides in favor of amending Title IX to

include a clause against retaliation, that will not entirely fix

the law. Title IX needs an overall fine-tuning in Congress to more

accurately reflect the goal of achieving gender equality without

harming athletic programs.