Dear List Members,
As I studied the reality of a new compliance initiative by the Kentucky
Board of Education I was struck by some curious parallels found in an
article from the Brookings Review found on the Website maintained by the
Duke Law School. As I work toward Title IX compliance in my tiny and
narrow world of interscholastic competitive athletics I notice that I
agree more and more with the axiom that, "All politics are local."
The KBE noticed that the goals of compliance and Title IX seemed further
and further away. In collaboration with the Kentucky Department of
Education, the Board decided that the Kentucky High School Athletics
Association should act as an arm of the Board and begin (after 25 years)
enforcing Title IX in interscholastic competitive athletics. The KHSAA
fought back, declined to accept the new role and, in a snap of logic,
the board members decided they really didn't need the high school
association then. The KHSAA promptly recanted and smoothed over the
"misunderstanding" and established some rules that might lead to
compliance. Each coach analyzes her/his own sport and the athletic
director summarizes the results for inequalities and the superintendent
signs off on the package and it is shipped to KHSAA. Then I looked at
the packages. Each level of participation, from the coach through the
superintendent, looked at the numbers through special filters.
Finally the committees reached the conclusion that, "There ain't nothing
wrong here." This pattern was being repeated state-wide and parents
finally decide to take the matter to court. Now we may have a court
settlement indicating that in at least one case in Northern Kentucky the
local conclusion will be re-examined. So I re-read the article at Duke.
The committees I have studied in Kentucky frequently place an
experienced 20 year football coach against a rookie first year softball
coach with alarming regularity and the decisions of the committees enact
that local distortion of equity compliance. John Weistart had "nailed
it" in his earlier discussions about who is at the table.
http://www.law.duke.edu/alumni/spring99mag/title9.htm
and the article from Kentucky:
http://www.kypost.com/2001/may/22/settle052201.html
Thanks to: John C. Weistart, who wrote the article; The Brookings
Review, which published it originally; Mirinda Kossoff, who placed it
on the internet site; Kim and Pat Egan (et al.) who tested the premise
in Kentucky; Sam Schiller, who put it all together for the court; and
all of the parents in Kentucky and elsewhere who are beginning to
seriously question the conclusion, "There ain't nothing wrong here."
Herb Dempsey
Dempsy@ix.netcom.com
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