Thursday, March 4, 1999

Gender equity
bill tries a new
approach

It would take Title IX
enforcement away from
the high school ADs

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

The timing seems strangely ironic.

While athletic officials face unprecedented concerns about funding their programs next fall, a bill to force them into total compliance with Title IX is headed for the House floor tomorrow.

House Bill 532 (House draft 3) would give Hawaii's public schools three years to correct the inequities bill backers say exist throughout the state system.

It would also take the task of enforcing compliance out of the hands of high school athletic directors and put that responsibility on the Legislature.

"We feel we are already in total compliance and participation is close to 50-50 now," said Dwight Toyama, executive secretary of the Oahu Interscholastic Association.

He said the participation of girls in Hawaii's public high school has increased 13.2 percent since 1994.

Jill Nunokawa, an attorney who is president of the Gender Equity Sports Club and one of the principal forces behind the House bill, said a seven-member advisory board appointed by the superintendent of education would oversee compliance with Title IX.

The board's job would be to identify violations of the federal statute that mandates equal access to athletic facilities for both genders.

The superintendent would be required to make a detailed annual report to a legislative committee on how Title IX has been implemented.

"Basically, we remove the issue from DOE (Department of Education) by making them answer to the Legislature," said Nunokawa. "There has been no accountability up to now. This is a demand that athletic directors change their ways. This is forced compliance."

Nunokawa has warned for the past few years that she reserves the option to file a Title IX lawsuit against the state if the schools don't comply. She said HB 532 is modeled on a successful Florida statute.

Among the issues she said will be addressed are aligning the girls' basketball season with the rest of the nation (it's now held in the spring instead of winter), allowing girls to run the same distance as boys in cross country, and equal spending.

Toyama said that last year the OIA spent more money on girls' sports than boys' sports, if football is excluded from the equation.

"But you can't exclude football from the picture," said Nunokawa. "That's why schools are being sued on the mainland."

Toyama said yesterday that the climate for athletic funding in 1999-2000 is "scary."

The Senate Ways and Means Committee is looking over scenarios in which the DOE slashes 5 percent and 10 percent from its budget next fiscal year.

Under even the 5 percent scenario, high school athletic departments would lose most of their operating budgets.

All junior varsity programs and even several varsity programs would be eliminated. Coaching staffs of remaining programs, including football, would be reduced.

Varsity programs that would vanish are soccer and wrestling.

Under the 10 percent cut plan, high school sports are history.

Toyama said that even the House Finance Committee's milder request for a 2 percent DOE budget cut, "would have drastic implications on our programs."

ADs have said their budgets are already at "bare bones" and any cuts would cripple their operations. Toyama said football will be threatened even if it survives the axe.

"It costs $500 to put one football player on the field," he said.

But Nunokawa said that she will push for compliance with Title IX even in a depleted athletic system.

"They have not been in compliance with the law for 27 years," she said.

She suggested that football could survive on a more even playing field and gender equity could be served if a league of school district teams was organized.

"With district teams, not as many kids get to play, but at least you still have your football, and smaller teams don't get crushed anymore. The reason why they went into these colored conferences (Red, White, Blue) was because some teams were getting killed."

Nunokawa said she has heard numerous complaints about gender inequities in public school athletic programs.

She cited three examples:

The Kaiser High softball team must walk to Koko Head District Park to practice because the Kaiser baseball diamond is reserved for baseball use only.

The Castle High girls' cross- country team was told to vacate a locker room late last fall to allow more space for the football team.

The Kailua High softball team was turned down on its request for a pep rally to celebrate winning the 1998 state title but the boys' basketball team was allowed to stage a rally two days after the softball tournament.

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