NEW YORK -- The
American Civil Liberties Union expressed disappointment today over the release
of new Title IX regulations that invite sex segregation in public
schools.
Title IX was passed in 1972 and requires gender equity for
boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding. The
new regulations, however, invite public schools to segregate students by sex,
both at the classroom and the schoolhouse level, leaving the door open for
school districts to provide very different classroom experiences to boys and
girls, on the basis of overbroad and inaccurate gender stereotypes.
The following quote may be attributed to Emily Martin, Deputy
Director of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project:
“The ACLU is
committed to ensuring that all children have access to quality and equitable
education regardless of sex. Sex segregation is not the way to achieve this
goal. These regulations invite public schools to violate the Constitution, which
forbids sex segregation in education in almost all instances. They represent a
through-the-looking-glass interpretation of the Title IX statute, which flatly
prohibits excluding any student from an educational program on the basis of
their sex. By ignoring applicable law, the new regulations muddy the water
and invite schools to undertake dangerous experiments with students’ civil
rights.
“The regulations allow schools to separate girls and boys
for virtually any reason they can dream up – including outdated and dangerous
gender stereotypes. And although the Administration’s regulations claim to make
these programs optional, sex segregation can never be truly voluntary. Girls are
never allowed to choose to be in the boys' class. Boys' are never allowed
to choose to be in the girls' class. That's the nature of segregation, and
precisely why we as a society have chosen to reject segregation in
schools.”
The ACLU’s 2004 letter to the Department of Education is
available here: www.aclu.org/womensrights/edu/13176leg20040423.html
The
ACLU was involved earlier this year in a challenge to single sex education in
Livingston Parish, LA. For more information go to: www.aclu.org/womensrights/edu/26367prs20060803.html