The Department of Education is entertaining comments on an important proposed change to Title IX regulations that presently impede single-sex schools. The proposed amendment, which springs from a little-noticed section of the No Child Left Behind act that was inspired by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), would allow states and Uncle Sam to fund single-sex education so long as "comparable" educational opportunities are available to students of the opposite sex. (The current regs say that the alternative offerings must be "substantially equal".) Said Education Secretary Rod Paige, "This regulation is designed to provide educators and parents with a wider range of diverse education options in public as well as private schools that receive federal aid to meet the needs and interests of students." A reasonable and long-overdue change, we judge. Better still is the provision allowing districts to support single-sex charter schools without requiring a complementary charter school for students of the opposite sex. Both girls and boys stand to benefit and nowhere more than in urban America and its minority communities. Moreover, as long as these are schools of choice, nobody will be forced to attend a single-sex school except by his/her own parents! The Department is taking comments at [email protected].
"Department to provide more educational options for parents," press release, March 3, 2004
"One-sex schools can be an option," by George Archibald, Washington Times, March 4, 2004