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Sector Spotlight
Report Release: Reforming Teacher Pensions for a Changing Work Force
New Education Sector report examines teacher pensions and details the problems facing current state pension programs.
Sport or Not? A Question for the Courts
Senior Policy Analyst Elena Silva interviewed by the New York Times on Title IX.
Teachers Unions as Agents of Reform
Brad Jupp, an architect of Denver's landmark performance-based teacher pay system, ProComp, is an outspoken advocate of both labor organizing and quality education for disadvantaged kids. In this interview, Jupp talks about ProComp, his views on teacher unionism, and the future of the teaching profession.
Education Sector Welcomes Three New Board Members
Education Sector's board of directors names three prominent leaders in the fields of education and journalism to the board: David W. Breneman, Richard Lee Colvin, and Peter McWalters.
For-profit colleges: Do they shortchange students?
Policy Director Kevin Carey comments on a recent Senate HELP Committee hearing on for-profit colleges.
Media Room
Education Sector in the News
Sport or Not? A Question for the Courts
- Web Address:
- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07
/15/us/15iht-letter.html?_r=1 - Publication Date:
- July 14, 2010
- Publisher:
- New York Times
From the article "Sport or Not? A Question for the Courts" by Richard Bernstein:
What the plaintiffs in the case are claiming is that the elimination of volleyball is a violation of the law known as Title IX, which was passed by Congress in 1972 and has been amended several times since. Over the years, Title IX has become the legal basis for a major transformation in school sports. It requires any institution getting any government money to provide equal athletic opportunities for men and women.
In 1994, the law was expanded, so that universities are required to provide annual reports to the Department of Education detailing things like their sports rosters, their recruiting budgets and their coaches’ salaries, to enable the department’s Office of Civil Rights to monitor compliance with the law.
That’s where the question of whether competitive cheerleading is or is not a sport comes in. If it is, universities could use it to make their numbers and to be found in compliance with Title IX. If it isn’t, then they would be in violation of the law.
"A lot of schools sponsor sports that do not have N.C.A.A. championships or which aren't considered traditional sports — sand volleyball, badminton, etc.," Elena Silva, an expert on Title IX at Education Sector, a Washington policy research organization, wrote in an e-mail message. The N.C.A.A. is the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which is the governing body for most collegiate sports.
"As long as these sports are treated as varsity (facilities, funding, coaching, etc.) then they can count these opportunities toward their gender equity efforts," Ms. Silva said.