FAIR OR FOUL PLAY?

AT CASEY COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL in Liberty, Ky., girls basketball has a history of success. But a few years ago, parents of some of the players became concerned. The team uniforms were fading, and the numbers were peeling off. Deva Hair, whose daughter Misty played center, said, "You'd be surprised what our children looked like in the finals of the tournament. Our girls were laughed at."

When Hair and other Liberty parents noticed that the basketball uniforms the boys wore appeared to be much newer, they questioned the school's sports expenditures.

School officials responded that an active boosters club (a fund-raising organization run by parents) helped support the boys team and provided new uniforms.

The girls' parents accepted the explanation and didn't file a complaint. But after a statewide newspaper wrote a series of articles questioning whether there was equality between girls' and boys' athletics in Kentucky, some schools decided to make some changes. In Fayette County, for example, the school board recently voted to require booster clubs to let school officials have the final say in how the parents raise funds and where the funds are spent.

Supporters of the new policies say it will reinforce Title IX of the federal Education Amendments Act of 1972. Title IX prohibits universities and other schools that receive federal money from discriminating on the basis of gender. In 1975, government regulations extended the law to athletics. Many booster club members, however, argue that it's their money, so they have a right to spend it the way they choose.

A Helping Hand

Laura Proctor, president of one football boosters club in Kentucky, said, "If [our booster club] would like our boys to go to Louisville [Kentucky] for a competition and we have the money, why can't we send them?"

Helen McQuinn, a Kentucky school board member, said, "I don't think the parents are going to be as apt to do as much [for high school athletics] as they've done in the past."

Unfair Advantage

Erin Wall, a high school basketball player, said the policies are a good idea: "[The girls team] works just as hard as the boys. A lot of times harder. It's ... only fair."

Deborah Brake, a lawyer for the National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C., said, "Under [Title IX], schools can't accept private money for the boys if they can't provide equal quality for the girls. Look at it this way: What if parents donated a first-class science lab but stipulated it was only for white students?"

Is regulating booster club contributions to school athletic groups a good idea? Why or why not?

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