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A FHSAA P.S.

By Erin Buzuvis, Sudha Setty, and Kristine Newhall

The piece the NYT ran about FHSAA's decision to reverse its earlier inequitable cuts was the most comprehensive one I read. In addition to reporting on the situation in Florida, it notes that other state high school athletics associations have enacted similar budget-saving measures--some equitable, some not so much. In Delaware varsity football was spared from cuts to contests that everyone else will experience in the coming season.
The situation in Florida should put every other high school athletic association on notice. Of course, as we saw in Florida, these associations are not just going to remedy these things of their own volition.
As Roger Dearing, executive director of FHSAA said, "The board was in no way acting in a discriminatory way against girls. We were reacting to a crisis in the state of Florida.?
Except that they were acting in a discriminatory way as they reacted to the economic crisis. How is it not discrimination when you are asking one group of (historically oppressed) people to bear the burden of that crisis?
The problem is that the decision makers have a problem with which they must deal and they the concept of equitable distribution of the pain is not even on their radar screens when they make the tough decisions.
I doubt this will be the last we hear of this kind of situation.

Full post as published by Title IX Blog on July 17, 2009 (boomark / email).