In June a federal court dismissed a lawsuit that argued the U.S. Education Department was engaging in sexual discrimination against men in the way it was enforcing Title IX.
The National Wrestling Coaches Association and several other athletic groups sued the Education Department claiming that the department is using an illegal quota system that results not in more female athletes at colleges and universities, but rather the elimination of men’s programs. Typically the Education Department threatens to withdraw funding from schools unless the ratio of male to female students is not brought more in line with the ratio of male to female enrollment at the school.
Since colleges and universities often find it difficult to meet that requirement, they often simply opt to cut less visible men’s sports programs such as wrestling. Since Title IX became law in 1972, almost 65 percent of men’s collegiate wrestling teams have been eliminated.
But the federal court considering the lawsuit ruled that the coaches associations lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. U.S. District Court judge Edward Sullivan wrote,
[Before contemplating] the dramatic step of striking down a landmark civil rights statute’s regulatory enforcement scheme, the Court must take pains to ensure that the parties and allegations before it are such that the issues will be fully and fairly litigated.
In the court’s view, plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden of persuasion
The Education Department formed a commission to look at Title IX enforcement which itself quickly bogged down in controversy, and in February Education Secretary Rod Paige said he would only consider recommendations from the commission that were unanimous.
Mike Moyer of the National Wrestling Coaches Association told the Associated Press that this was not the last word from his organization. “The fight is far from over,” Moyer told the AP. “Every day that goes by, and the quota system stays in place, men’s teams are going to continue to be eliminated in wholesale numbers.”
Sources:
Wrestling coaches’ suit dismissed in federal court. Associated Press, June 12, 2003.
District Court drops Title IX case. Andrew Delaney, Daily Pennsylvanian, June 19, 2003.
U.S. Judge Rejects Wrestling Coaches’ Challenge to Title IX. David Savage, The Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2003.