Title IX in the Aftermath of President George W. Bush’s Commission on Opportunities in Athletics

Abstract

The year 2002 marked thirtieth anniversary of passage of by United States. For those familiar with history of resistance to application of to athletic programs in schools receiving federal financial assistance, it was also year in which United States Department of Education, upon urging of President George W. Bush, appointed Commission on Opportunities in Athletics. According to its stated purpose, Commission was charged to collect information, analyze issues, and obtain broad public input directed at improving application of current Federal standard for measuring equal opportunity for men and women and and girls to participate in athletics under IX (Commission Charter, 2002). In point of fact, creation of Commission was a response to allegations made by several men's minor sport constituencies, like National Wrestling Coaches Association, that was being enforced as an illegal quota system and was being used by education administrators to eliminate men's varsity sports programs. The impetus for Commission derived from a lawsuit filed by National Wrestling Coaches Association and other men's minor sport organizations against Department of Education, in which plaintiffs sought to vacate existing standards of compliance. At an objective level, approach taken by Bush Administration and Department of Education regarding in its 30th year defies logic. While acknowledging that vast majority of educational institutions had not yet complied with mandates of after three decades, and girls and women in United States were still being denied access to equitable educational opportunity in schools, argument government officials embraced as most compelling and warranting most attention were false allegations that and men had somehow become victims of enforcement. At a fundamental level, as it applies to athletics, seems to trigger most central of our concerns as a nation about proper behavior of men and women and their roles in society. Just as author, Mariah Burton Nelson has pointed out that the stronger women get, more men love football, so too has it been case that stronger women get in sport, more resistance there has been to enforcement of IX. This special section of Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal devoted to in aftermath of Commission's hearings is intended to do several things. First, as shown in Theresa Walton's contribution entitled Title IX: Forced to Wrestle Up The Backside, Commission's validation of argument that enforcement of was harming men's sports prevented a considered understanding of campaign of misinformation that led many Americans to reach this erroneous conclusion. Walton situates claims made by some members of wrestling community within broader war on boys advanced in opposition to perceived affirmative action programs by political conservatives. …