[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 137 (Wednesday, September 6, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1706]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


           DEFENDING EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ON THE PLAYING FIELDS

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 6, 1995
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in 
condemning the meanspirited and utterly sexist provision in the Labor-
HHS appropriations bill which would begin to reverse decades of 
progress in the march to gender equality in our Nation. The current 
majority's recent attack on title IX, the landmark law that opened the 
door to women's participation in school sports, cannot go uncriticized 
even though it was slipped into the debate just before this August 
recess. I draw my colleagues' attention to the following excellent and 
pointed, August 7, 1995, editorial by the San Francisco Chronicle, 
entitled ``Equal Opportunity On The Playing Fields,'' which, 
unfortunately, could not be entered into the Record before the recess. 
I offer that editorial now, and urge my colleagues to reconsider the 
Congress' current path which would reverse hard-won gains in equal 
opportunity for female athletes.
                Equal Opportunity on the Playing Fields

       Tucked in the ugly social spending cuts package approved by 
     the House of Representatives last week is the first salvo in 
     a war against Title IX, the landmark 1972 law that opened a 
     long-closed door to young women who had been denied 
     participation in school sports.
       The meanspirited appropriations measure includes 
     restrictions on Medicaid abortions, funding cuts for Head 
     Start, prohibitions on lobbying by nonprofit groups, limits 
     on the authority of the Occupational Health and Safety 
     Administration and the National Labor Relations Board and 
     termination of subsides that help the poor pay their utility 
     bills.
       By a voice vote, the House added an amendment calling for a 
     review of Title IX, which bars sex discrimination by schools 
     and colleges receiving federal funds and requires that both 
     sexes have an equal opportunity to participate in school 
     sports.
       The law has come under fire from some newly powerful House 
     conservatives who are sympathetic to coaches who say they are 
     forced to cut back on men's programs in order to comply with 
     the law. This transparent effort at scapegoating women's 
     sports and enfeebling gender equity in college athletics 
     should be squelched before it gets lost in the maze of 
     frenetic congressional activity.
       Millions of American women can attest to the difference the 
     '70s law has made in their lives. Contrast the existence of 
     pre-Title IX mothers left out of organized sports in their 
     high school and college years to their daughters, whose lives 
     were immeasurably changed and enriched because they were 
     offered more athletic opportunities.
       The same development of confidence, fitness, perseverance 
     and social skills that boys enjoyed for so many decades 
     through sports programs was finally accessible--even if on a 
     much smaller scale--to girls. In addition, like boys who play 
     sports, girls who play sports are more likely to graduate 
     from high school.
       Title IX clearly has opened doors. In the years since the 
     gender equity law was enacted, women's participation in 
     college athletics has ballooned. Participation in young 
     women's high school and college competitive sports has 
     increased from about 300,000 to more than 2 million.
       But even after 23 years, equity is far from having been 
     achieved. Compared with men, women in Division 1--big-time 
     sports colleges--receive less than one-third of athletic 
     scholarship dollars, one-sixth of recruitment dollars and 
     one-fifth of overall athletic budgets, even though they 
     represent more than half of the student body.
       Too many important rights are being surrendered in the name 
     of congressional vigor. Hard-won equal opportunity for female 
     athletes should not be one of them.
     

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