Bush Administration Panel to Review Title IX Policy
A Bush administration panel reviewing all aspects of Title IX policy is planning a series of public hearings nationwide this fall and winter.
Cynthia Cooper, former WNBA basketball star and coach, is co-chairing the Secretary’s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, which is to review all facets of Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination and has led to increases in women’s collegiate sports programs nationwide. The other co-chair is Ted Leland, athletics director at Stanford University.
The administration’s creation of the panel has generated concern among women’s groups and other organizations, who claim that the administration may seek to scale back the anti-discrimination law. In welcoming members to the commission on July 29, Education Secretary Roderick Paige said the panel will examine tough questions.
“In our commitment to fairness for all, have we gone far enough? Have we gone too far?” he asked. “How can we do a better job of enforcing a law that represents hope to so many Americans?”
Cooper says the panel enters the public hearing process with no set conclusions. “We will hear Americans’ perspectives, which will be necessary to compile our report and share our views with Secretary Paige and his team,” she says.
After an initial meeting in Atlanta in late August, future meetings are scheduled for Sept. 17-18 in Chicago; Oct. 22-23 in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Nov. 20-21 in San Diego; Dec. 4 in Philadelphia; and Jan. 8 in Washington, D.C. The commission is to submit a report by Jan. 31, 2003. For more information or for those interested in submitting testimony, send an e-mail request to OpportunityinAthletics
@ed.gov.
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