(July 31, 2002)

Title IX Debate Heads On A Road Trip

NEW YORK, NY (July 31, 2002) The national conversation on Title IX promoted by the Bush administration will begin Aug. 27 with a town hall meeting in Atlanta.

Other town hall meetings will be in Chicago, San Diego and Colorado Springs. Details will be released later this week.

These venues were decided Monday at the first meeting of the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics. The commission was named last month by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who said he formed it to allow the issues surrounding Title IX to be reviewed and debated.

Monday's procedural meeting at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington was closed to the public. Other meetings held by the commission are expected to be open.

''There was no drama (Monday),'' said commission member Julie Foudy, a pro soccer player and president of the Women's Sports Foundation. ''We didn't talk about any of the substantive issues.''

The town hall meetings will allow for public debate of Title IX and help the commission formulate a report due to Paige on Jan. 31. Paige charged the commission with seeing if the law works to promote opportunities for male and female athletes. Title IX is a 30-year-old law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds.

Critics of the Bush administration say creation of the commission is the first step in rolling back enforcement of the law. The Department of Education disputes that. It says in a statement on its Web site that schools have been asking for at least a decade for additional guidance on how they can comply with the law. Title IX has been blamed by some for causing some men's sports to be discontinued.

[Source: Erik Brady, USA Today]