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Support Equal Treatment in Athletics

One way to shine a spotlight on the problems that women and girls still face in athletics is to require schools to publicly disclose gender equity information about their athletics programs. A federal law requires colleges to make such information publicly available each year, but high schools are not required to disclose these data, making it difficult to ensure fairness in high school athletics programs.

To address this problem the High School Sports Information Collection Act was introduced in the Senate.

 Take action now to support equal treatment in athletics programs and the High School Sports Information Collection Act.

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I am writing to urge you to support the High School Sports Information Collection Act.

This bipartisan bill would strengthen Title IX and require high schools to report and publicize basic information on the number of female and male students in their athletic programs and the money spent on their sports teams.

Under Title IX, high school girls are entitled to equal opportunities to play sports and equal treatment of their teams when they do play.  In the 37 years since it was enacted, Title IX has resulted in stunning increases in girls' participation in high school sports - from fewer than 300,000 in 1972 to about 3 million today - a more than 900 percent increase.

But the playing field is not yet level.  In fact, high school girls still receive 1.3 million fewer participation opportunities than do boys, and evidence suggests that the money spent on girls' sports programs lags significantly behind the money spent on boys' programs.  But unlike colleges, high schools are not required to disclose any data on gender equity in sports, making it difficult for schools, students and parents to identify sources of inequality and ensure fairness in their schools' athletics programs.

The High School Sports Information Collection Act would require high schools to release data regarding their male and female athletic programs, including athletic participation rates, expenditures on teams, and practice and game schedules, in order to more effectively ensure Title IX compliance. This information will allow schools, parents and students to evaluate their athletics programs to make sure that they are treating boys and girls equally.

I urge you to support the High School Sports Information Collection Act to ensure that our daughters have the same opportunities to benefit from sports as do our sons.

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