Margaret Spelling letter

4200 54th Ave South. St Petersburg, Florida 33711

April 25, 2008

400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20202

Dear Margaret Spelling,

I am a student athlete at Eckerd College in St Petersburg, Florida. Lately I’ve been researching and exploring the Title IX Act of 1972, and upon my research I found an organization who supports Title IX and its efforts to ensure equality among athletic programs across the country. The mission of the Women’s Sports Foundation is to advance the lives of girls and women through sport and physical activity. In addition to researching Title IX, I’ve decided to become involved by letting the government know that there is more to be done to ensure that all girls have the opportunity to play sports.

I greatly appreciate your efforts in leading the Department of Education to reaffirm the validity of the three-part test for determining equal opportunity in athletics participation, and to begin an education program for schools and colleges and more vigorously enforce the law. I would urge you to place more vigorous enforcement at the top of the priority list for the Office of Civil Rights. It is important to send the message to schools that the OCR is serious about enforcement. If schools realize how serious the issue is, maybe they’ll start to comply with the law.

In the 31 years since Title IX was adopted, the Office of Civil Rights has yet to remove federal funds from any school or college. Beginning the removal process against non-complying schools would demonstrate the government's seriousness about enforcing the law. Further, such action by your office would deter continued lack of progress in the area of gender equity in athletics. As a supporter of this foundation and Title IX, I think an example must be made in order for progress to be made.

Even though women have made tremendous progress in sports, there are still to many schools not in compliance and too many female athletes who miss opportunities to compete. At the high school level, male athletes receive 28.4% more opportunities to play and 26.7% more at the college level. Female athletes receive $133 million less each year in athletic scholarship dollars than their male counterparts, despite the fact that female students comprise 54.7% of our college student population.

I respectfully encourage the Administration to pursue a strong enforcement policy for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and support the continuation of the strong compliance standards that are currently in place. Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter.

I look forward to any response.

Sincerely,

Chris Gray