Senate Letter

4200 54th Ave South. St Petersburg, Florida, 33711

April 24, 2008



Dear (Senate?)

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 Save Title IX Committee is an organization determined to protect Title IX and make sure all programs are in compliance.

Title IX's impact on women's athletic participation is one of the country's greatest success stories. In the past three decades, Title IX has led to a 450 percent increase in the rate of female participation in college sports and a more than 900 percent increase in participation at the high school level.

Despite the participation increase in the college game, a significant drawback to the law's enforcement at the high school level involves the lack of data reporting. The U.S. Department of Education has not required these schools to report athletic opportunity, participation, and funding statistics to any higher authority. As a result, high school female athlete often miss the opportunity to participate in many sports. In fact, while girls comprise 49 percent of the high school population, they receive only 41 percent of all athletic participation opportunities. If colleges are forced to report this type of information, I believe it’s only fair that the same obligations be met throughout high school programs.

On Wednesday, February 7, 2007 Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced the High School Sports Information Collection Act. At the same time, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) in the House introduced a companion bill called the High School Athletics Accountability Act. These important bills will require high schools to report basic information on the number of female and male students in their athletic programs and the expenditures made for their sports teams.

As an athlete and a supporter of the Save Title IX Committee, I urge you to become an original cosponsor of the S.R. 518, the High School Sports Information Collection Act of 2007 and to support it once it has been introduced.

I am looking forward to your response or any questions you have for me.

Sincerely

Chris Gray