[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 4, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1884-S1885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SNOWE:
  S. 282. A bill to amend the Education Sciences Act of 2002 to require 
the Statistics Commissioner to collect information from coeducational 
secondary schools on such schools' athletic programs; to the Committee 
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the ``High School 
Sports Information Collection Act of 2003''. This legislation directs 
the Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics to 
collect data from our Nation's high schools regarding the participation 
of America's adolescents in athletics. Passage of this legislation 
would allow the Department of Education's Office on Civil Rights to 
better assess whether high schools are meeting the requirements under 
Title IX passed as part of the Education Amendments Act of 1972.
  The existence of an information gap regarding high school athletic 
participation was highlighted by a 2001 by the General Accounting 
Office which was unable to respond to a Congressional request about 
participation in athletics, including schools' decisions to add or 
discontinue sports team in high schools, colleges and universities. 
However, ``because of limited readily available information and the 
difficulty of collecting comparable information'' the GAO instead could 
only answer the inquiry about changes in four-year intercollegiate 
sports.
  The legislation is simple. It directs the Commissioner to collect 
information regarding participation in athletics broken down by gender, 
teams, race and ethnicity; overall budgets and expenditures, including 
items like travel expenses, equipment and uniforms and their 
replacement schedules; the numbers of coaches, full and part-time; and 
scheduling issues like participation in post-season opportunities and 
successes by team. These data are already reported, in most cases, to 
the state Departments of Education and would therefore not pose any 
additional burden on the high schools.
  The simple straightforwardness of this legislation goes a long way 
toward ensuring that our high schools are complying with civil rights 
law as established under Title IX without creating a new paperwork 
requirement on our schools. After all when considering whether high 
schools are in compliance with this critical civil rights law, it is 
necessary to know what is actually happening in the schools.
  There can be no doubt Title IX has played a role in increasing 
women's athletic opportunities. However, many argue that the 
implementation of this law has reduced opportunity for others. While I 
strongly disagree with such an assessment, I do believe that it is 
critical that policy makers, parents, coaches, and athletic directors 
alike have access to precise and timely data to inform the debate and 
ensure that decisions are based on an accurate picture of interest and 
participation. Precise information on the participation

[[Page S1885]]

levels in high school would assist the enforcement of Title IX on the 
high school level.
  Participation in athletics renders physical benefits as well as 
important psychological benefits. Studies have shown that values 
learned from sports participation, such as teamwork, leadership, 
discipline, and pride in accomplishment, are important lessons for 
everyone and are especially beneficial as more women participate in 
business management and ownership positions in ever higher numbers. 
Certainly it is no coincidence that 80 percent of female managers of 
Fortune 500 companies have a background in athletics. There are 
palpable gains generated by participation in athletics, gains which 
should be as accessible for females as they have been for males for 
decades.
  This legislation compliments current law and in fact would allow us 
to ensure that the law is being enforced better than we can today. The 
data regarding the participation of high school students in athletics 
has been lacking for too long and passage of this legislation would 
help athletic programs ensure that they are offering equal opportunity 
for all athletes.
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