<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2604" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>Wayne,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This sounds like his MO. Why doesn't he go in the oval office, take his
coloring book, and stay there for the next 3-1/2 years!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dick</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=deco@moscow.com href="mailto:deco@moscow.com">Art Deco</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">Vision 2020</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, April 12, 2005 7:18
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] 04-12-05 NY Times
OP/ED: A New Attack on Women's Sports</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>
<H5>April 12, 2005</H5><NYT_KICKER><FONT color=#666666
size=-1><STRONG>EDITORIAL</STRONG></FONT> </NYT_KICKER><NYT_HEADLINE type=" "
version="1.0">
<H2>A New Attack on Women's Sports</H2></NYT_HEADLINE><NYT_BYLINE type=" "
version="1.0"></NYT_BYLINE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><NYT_TEXT>
<P>The Bush administration has mounted a surreptitious new attack on Title IX,
the 33-year-old law that has exponentially expanded the participation of girls
and women in sports.</P>
<P>Last month, a memo went up on an Education Department Web site that was
billed as a "clarification" of Title IX regulations. But the memo amounted to
a major weakening of the criteria used to determine compliance with the rule
that all schools receiving public funds provide equal sports opportunities for
men and women. Under the new guidelines, on campuses where the proportion of
female athletes falls notably below the proportion of women in the student
body, and sports programs for women are not expanding, a college will still be
able to show it is "fully and effectively" obeying the law by doing an online
survey that shows women have no unmet sports interests. The department says
that if the rate of response is low - as it is with most such surveys - that
will be interpreted as a lack of interest.</P>
<P>Currently, such surveys are just one factor used on the college level to
gauge interest in women's sports, along with more accurate measures, like
participation rates in "feeder" high schools or recreational leagues, and the
opinions of coaches and administrators. There is no similar burden on male
athletes to register their interest, and surveys are a poor predictor of
behavior if sports opportunities are afforded equally. The president of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association, Myles Brand, worries that this
loophole "will likely stymie the growth of women's athletics and could reverse
the progress made over the last three decades."</P>
<P>This harmful change, made without public notice or debate, marks a
dismaying turnaround. Two years ago, the administration rejected a set of
hobbling proposals to alter the criteria for Title IX compliance, including a
change similar to the one it has now quietly instituted. Still, there is cause
for hope. The Bush administration supported the Supreme Court's important
ruling in March extending Title IX's coverage to whistle-blowers who complain
about a school's treatment of female athletes. A public outcry may yet
persuade the administration to withdraw the new
regulation.</P></NYT_TEXT></FONT></DIV>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>_____________________________________________________<BR> List
services made available by First Step Internet, <BR> serving the
communities of the Palouse since 1994.
<BR>
http://www.fsr.net
<BR>
mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<BR>/////////////////////////////////////////////////////<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>