Separate schools for boys and girls? (Debate).

Should public schools separate the boys from the girls? Many private schools do. But the U.S. has only 15 single-sex public schools. President George W. Bush wants to create more.

The President and some members of Congress believe that American families should have the choice of sending their children to single-sex public schools. To make that possible, the President wants to change a landmark public-education law.

The law, Title IX, says that boys and girls must have equal access to classes and activities in public schools. Under Title IX, a boy could claim the right to attend an all-girls public school and vice versa. The President wants to change that rule.

What do you think? Should there be more single-sex public schools?

YES

Thousands of kids already attend private single-sex schools. Why shouldn't public-school kids have the same choice?

Supporters of such schools argue that boys and girls learn differently and should be taught differently. They also argue that flirting and other classroom distractions occur less often in single-sex environments.

"We don't have to look all pretty-pretty;" says Ebonee Herd, a seventh-grader who attends the all-girl Southern Leadership Academy in Louisville, Kentucky.

No

Public schools can not discriminate against children because of their race. Why should they be able to bar children because of their sex?

Opponents of all-boy and all-girl schools say that boys and girls should learn to get along with and respect each other when they are young. Besides, note-passing and teasing still go on in single-sex schools.

Diana Keiser, 14, of Beltsville, Maryland, chose a co-ed high school. "Girls, all they talk about is what's new, who's doing what with whom," she says. "I don't think I could stand every single day with all girls."