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NWLC Receives 2009 Race and Gender Equity Hot Schott Award

by Fatima Goss Graves, Vice President for Education and Employment,
National Women’s Law Center 

We are pleased to announce that the National Women’s Law Center received the 2009 Race and Gender Equity Hot Schott Award with our partner, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, for our collaboration in researching and writing Listening to Latinas: Barriers to High School Graduation.

Bestowed by the Schott Foundation for Public Education, this award is granted to individuals and organizations that have “demonstrated exceptional commitment and achieved extraordinary results in advocating for equity in public education.” We received the award at the Hot Schott Awards Gala and Dinner, which were held as part of Schott’s second annual National Opportunity to Learn Education Summit. To learn more about the Summit and Gala, click here.

NWLC Weighs in on Department of Education Distribution of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Funding

by Kolbe Franklin, Program Associate,
National Women’s Law Center

The U.S. Department of Education has recently issued a series of proposed application guidelines for distribution to states of its ARRA funding, including the State Fiscal Stabilization funds, the Race to the Top funds, and the Investing in Innovation (also known as i3) funds. The Center is commenting on these proposed guidelines, encouraging the Department to make clear that programs addressing the needs of girls particularly at risk of dropping out are eligible for such funds, and that state data collection and reporting requirements should include data on students’ gender (in addition to race/ethnicity and other categories), and pregnant or parenting status.

NWLC Releases Report on Programs and Practices that Work Recognition Project

by Kolbe Franklin, Program Associate, 
National Women’s Law Center

In partnership with the Association for Career and Technical Education, the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, and the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education, NWLC recently released its Programs and Practices that Work (PPTW) recognition project report, Building New Possiblities: Promising Practices for Recruiting and Retaining Students in Career and Technical Education Programs That Are Nontraditional for Their Gender.

PPTW aims to recognize local and state educational agencies or schools across the country that have implemented effective programs and practices for improving student access to and success in pursuing careers that are non-traditional for their gender. This year’s report highlights GirlTech Program at Francis Tuttle Technology Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which has successfully raised the enrollment and retention of under-represented students in nontraditional CTE courses.

NWLC Condemns Sexual Assault at High School Dance

Police are currently investigating the recent gang rape of a 15-year-old girl at her school during a homecoming dance in Richmond, California.

The following is a statement by Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC): 

“The circumstances reported about this brutal assault, as well as the shocking inaction of those who stood by and watched it happen, are shocking – and should be widely condemned.

“Schools have a responsibility and legal obligation to prevent and address sexual assault and harassment at school-sponsored activities.  Even a semblance of equality of educational opportunity cannot be achieved if schools do not do their part to detect and prevent such violence.”

'Glee' Cheerleading Coach and Pregnancy Discrimination - Shame on Sue!

by Amanda Stone, Fellow, 
National Women's Law Center

“Q, take off those sunglasses. I want to look in your eyes when I tell you this. You’re off the Cheerios. I can’t have a pregnant girl on the squad. You’re a disgrace.” These are the words that Sue Sylvester, coach of the school’s award-winning competitive cheerleading squad, the Cheerios, told pregnant teen Quinn Fabray at the end of this week’s episode of "Glee," the new hit Fox musical high school series.

Can Sue do this? Absolutely not! "Glee" is set in what appears to be a public high school in Ohio. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits schools that receive federal funds from discriminating against students on the basis of sex, including pregnancy. In fact, the Title IX regulations explicitly provide protection to pregnant students. Specifically, the provision prohibits discrimination based on a student’s “pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy or recovery therefrom.”

Practically speaking, what does Title IX mean for pregnant students? Schools subject to Title IX must provide these students with equal access to all school programs and activities. This means schools may not assume that pregnant students cannot attend school or participate in school activities. In fact, these are precisely the types of outmoded stereotypes Congress intended to address when it passed Title IX.  

So what does this mean for schools? Well, a school cannot penalize pregnant students for violating its moral code. Nor can it require pregnant students to take steps not required of all students with medical conditions requiring the treatment of a physician. A pregnant student’s participation in school activities should be made in consultation with the student and her doctor and a school may not erect hurdles, large or small, to discourage her participation.

Sue’s actions clearly violated Title IX, but kicking Quinn off of the cheerleading squad also made bad policy. Studies indicate that participation in school activities helps to keep students engaged in school, thus making it less likely they will give up and drop out. Unfortunately, what happened to Quinn is not unique -– schools all over the country still discriminate against pregnant students, 37 years after Title IX was enacted. Shame on Sue!

October is Sex Ed Month of Action – Get Moving!

By Candace Webb, Outreach Manager,
National Women's Law Center 

Since 1996, Congress has provided more than one billion dollars in federal funding to states, communities and school districts to implement “abstinence-only” programs. And just last week, Congress voted once again to continue funding these failed programs. These programs have repeatedly been proven ineffective, as studies have shown. And as my colleague Julia Kaye pointed out last week some federally funded abstinence-only programs promote stereotypes about gender and relationships.

Unlike failed abstinence-only programs, comprehensive sexuality education programs provide teens complete information, are medically accurate, and have an evidence base of effectiveness. For these reasons and more, the National Women’s Law Center fully supports efforts to help young people on their campuses and in their communities across the country to build momentum for comprehensive sex education during October’s Sex Ed Month of Action – and to urge their Members of Congress to become co-sponsors of the Responsible Education About Life Act (the REAL Act).  

Having been a youth sexual health educator myself, I know just how important medically accurate and science-based comprehensive sexuality education is to keeping teens and young adults knowledgeable and equipped with the skills needed to make life-long healthy and responsible decisions. On many occasions, I educated youth that came from very conservative families where sex and birth control were taboo topics and were never discussed. On the flip side, I came across youth who had parents that used a positive sexuality approach toward sexuality education and talked openly and honestly with their children from a young age about sex, relationships, and sexual health issues so that they could develop healthy attitudes toward sexuality and themselves.

Another lesson I learned as a youth sexual health educator was the vital role schools and communities have in preparing young people for a lifetime of sexual health. I learned that many young women relied on the information they received in schools because they were not getting this much-needed information in a more intimate family setting. In the ideal world, parents would be the primary sexual health educators of their children – meaning they would be comfortable talking to their children about relationships and safer sex, and there would be less pressure on schools to be the exclusive providers of the only accurate sexual health information youth will ever get.

NWLC Applauds Confirmation of Thomas Perez

by Amy Matsui, Senior Counsel, 
National Women's Law Center 

The National Women’s Law Center applauds the Senate for confirming Thomas Perez as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today by a bipartisan vote of 72-22. The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) strongly supported Mr. Perez’s nomination.

“The National Women’s Law Center commends the Senate for confirming Tom Perez as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division and is proud to have supported his nomination,” said NWLC Co-President Marcia Greenberger. “Mr. Perez, who brings twenty years of experience enforcing and supporting our nation’s civil rights laws, is eminently qualified for this position.”  

Mr. Perez has spent his entire career in public service. He worked as a career prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division, where he was quickly promoted to Deputy Chief of the Criminal Section.  He was appointed to be Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in 1998, and he served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S.  Department of Health and Human Services from February 1999 until the end of the Clinton Administration. At various points in his career, Mr. Perez worked for the late Senator Edward Kennedy, advising the Senator on civil rights, criminal justice and constitutional issues, and taught law and public health. Mr. Perez currently serves as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation.

The Civil Rights Division enforces legal protections of critical importance to women, including Title VII, which prohibits sex discrimination in employment; Title IX, which protects women against sex-based discrimination in educational programs; and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which allows women to safely exercise their constitutional right to reproductive health. In addition, the Civil Rights Division is responsible for prosecuting hate crimes and human trafficking crimes.  

Mr. Perez’s nomination comes at a critical time. Much work needs to be done to address pay discrimination, educational opportunities, violence against health care providers, and a host of other urgent matters.

“It is time for a Civil Rights Division that is fully committed to enforcing the civil rights protections upon which the citizens of this nation rely,” Greenberger said.  “Mr. Perez is the right person to restore the department’s historic role as guardian of civil rights and to make the enforcement of women’s rights and legal protections a priority once again.”

Weekly Round-Up

by Robin Reed, Online Outreach Manager, 
National Women's Law Center 

The New York Times’ Economix blog explored several of the reasons health care reform is such an important issue for women. 

Rachel posted at Our Bodies Our Blog about a new study that found an increase in the number of medical abortions and said, “The large geographic overlap between facilities that provide surgical abortion and those that offer mifepristone means that, in many cases, women are able to choose the type of early abortion procedure they prefer,” but that “mifepristone has not brought a major improvement in the geographic availability of abortion.”

The University of Maryland, which currently has 15 women’s sports teams and 12 men’s teams, may need to eliminate some teams to cut expenses due to the economic crisis (via Title IX Blog).

Two American women won the Nobel prize for medicine for their work on chromosomes and cell division. So far, a total of 10 women have won the prize. 

Courtney posted at Feministing about the ongoing allegations by some that the economic crisis has hurt men more than it has women.

Come On, Abstinence-Only Programs Shouldn't Have to Prove They're Effective to Get Funding

by Julia Kaye, Health Policy Associate, 
National Women's Law Center 

Last night, in a “hat-tip” to common-sense and efficacy, the Senate Finance Committee approved an amendment introduced by Chairman Baucus to provide funding for evidence-based comprehensive sex education. The Chairman introduced his amendment as an alternative to an amendment introduced by Senator Hatch, which would restore $50 million in annual funding for abstinence-only programs through 2014. The Chairman and his staff explained that abstinence-only programs would still be eligible for the new pot of teen pregnancy prevention money — they simply had to prove, like any other pregnancy prevention program, that the program is effective and that the information it provides is medically-accurate and complete. Fair, no?

The Committee didn’t think so. Fearing, I suppose, that abstinence-only programs would not meet the standards for the new pregnancy prevention funding and loath, it seems, to end the dedicated funding stream to ab-only programs (which have been demonstrated ineffective by study after study  after studies), the Committee also approved Senator Hatch’s amendment (in a 12-11 vote).

As we’ve previously discussed, over 80 percent of abstinence-only curricula provide information about contraception and other reproductive health services that is medically inaccurate, exaggerated, and misleading, such as grossly exaggerated failure rates for condoms, false information about the risks of abortion, and subjective, moral judgments treated as scientific fact. The abstinence-only curriculum, Me, My World, My Future (1998), used by eight federal grantees, refers to a 43 day-old fetus as a “thinking person.” Why kNOw (2002), a curriculum used by seven grantees, asks rhetorically “could condoms be just another stupid idea?”

Some federally funded abstinence-only programs also promote stereotypes about gender and relationships. WAIT Training, a curriculum used by nine former federal grantees, lists “Financial Support” as one of the “5 Major Needs of Women,” and “Domestic Support” as one of the “5 Major Needs of Men.” Moreover, all abstinence-only programs discriminate against GLBTQ teens, and all programs stigmatize adolescents without two, heterosexual, married parents, and youths who do not foresee themselves one day living in a traditional family structure.

Baucus’ common-sense amendment is in line with President Obama’s 2010 budget proposal, which would phase out abstinence-only funding in favor of comprehensive sex education programs. The amendment would provide $50 million annually to states for evidence-based, medically accurate and age-appropriate programs to educate adolescents on both abstinence and contraception, as well as at least three “adulthood preparation subjects,” such as healthy relationships and financial literacy. The amendment also provides an additional $25 million for innovative teen pregnancy prevention strategies, allotments to tribes, and research, evaluation and technical assistance.

You've Listened: Now Take Action. Learn More About Promising Practices to Improve Latinas' Graduation Rates

by Megan Tackney, Program Associate, 
National Women's Law Center

Our newest report, Listening to Latinas: Barriers to High School Graduation, explores the challenges that young Latinas face that impact their chances of graduating from high school. Together with MALDEF, we spent months surveying and interviewing girls and the program staff and teachers who work with them every day. We found that Latinas have very high aspirations; in fact, 80 percent of those we surveyed said they want to at least graduate from college, and 98 percent of those we surveyed said they want to graduate from high school at least. Still, the latest data shows that 41 percent of Latinas do not graduate on time with a standard high school diploma, if they graduate at all.

As the report explains, there is much that schools and policymakers can do to help Latinas succeed in school, such as combating discrimination, connecting students with role models, helping to prevent teen pregnancy, better supporting pregnant and parenting students, and undertaking initiatives to get students ready for college.

If you are an educator, advocate or service provider who works with or on behalf of young Latinas, join us for a free teleconference on October 14 at 2 p.m. Eastern to learn more about improving educational outcomes for Latinas. An educator and a program director who have experience working to help Latina youth succeed will share their perspectives with us, and we look forward to a good discussion.  Register today here.