Rep. Linda Sanchez: On Title IX

Over at the Huffington Post, California Rep. Linda Sanchezwrites about Title IX and keeping it alive, but for all the wrong reasons.

Title IX of the Educational Amendments, which became law on June 23, 1972, says that, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." That framework has helped provide women a more equal opportunity for education.

The great legacy of Title IX is most often talked about in the context of sports. After winning two gold medals in swimming in the 1964 Olympic Games, Donna de Varona had to put off her college education at UCLA because sports scholarships for women did not exist.

A generation later, Title IX has helped propel women's sports to increasingly higher levels of performance, awareness and respect. Indeed, some of our country's most recognizable and influential stars are women who have excelled at collegiate, Olympic and even professional sports.

Yet the most telling effect of Title IX is the fact that today, more women than men are attending college. Equal education for women was rare before 1972. Many law and medical schools accepted a maximum of 15 women per year, and women were often shut out of classes such as criminal justice and auto mechanics.

Today, well over half of all undergraduate college students are women, and women outnumber men in many graduate programs.

Despite this progress, Title IX continues to come under attack. In March 2005, the U.S. Department of Education announced it was watering down its enforcement. More recently, opponents of Title IX have used the so-called "boy crisis" debate to fan the myth that expanded educational opportunities for girls have come at the expense of boys.

Title IX has been a boon to a great many things, women's education and sports not the least among them. Title IX has expanded educational opportunity across the board since with more people enrolling in colleges, the academic community has gotten larger and colleges are making more money. Not a bad side-effect.

But let's face it, Title IX enforcement cannot be biased toward women any more. At a time when women make up 55 to 60 percent of a graduating class, and that has been the trend for some time now, one cannot rationally argue that Title IX must be biased toward women.

Rep. Sanchez must understand and I am sure can read, that Title IX is gender neutral and must be so. I don't think that expanded educational opportunities for women have come at the expense of boys--at least in terms of strictly educational opportunities. You might be able to make a case in the sports context--but that is another matter.

When graduating classes are so overwhelmingly female, we do indeed have a "boy crisis" in this country. There is no reason why a nation so dedicated to equality amongst the sexes to have the interpretation of a law the is pre-disposed to aiding women. That may have been the case 30 years ago, but it is not the case now.