Oink! Oink! - Women's Educational Equity Act funding

Women's Quarterly, Spring, 2001 by Evan Gahr

Evan Gahr feasts on feminist pork. Isn't it high time the federal government stopped playing Lady Bountiful to these gals?

IF PERCHANCE the Bush administration is looking for a specific pork barrel program to fry, we'd like to suggest some fat for the fire: the highly dubious projects that are funded every year under the rubric of the Women's Educational Equity Act. A sop to feminists, WEEA, which was passed twenty-seven years ago, has cost the taxpayer about $100 million.

Administered by the U. S. Department of Education, this remarkably resilient feminist boondoggle even has its own resource center" in Newton, Mass. The Department of Education, through WEEA, funds the resource center, as well as financing projects of people who pledge to promote "education equity for girls and women." The annual budget: $3 million.

Grants are awarded to individuals, educational institutions, and community groups; the awards range from $75,000 to $150,000; the average is $125,000. So far WEEA appears to be safe: Funding for fiscal 2001 has been set at the usual $3 million, according to Education Department spokeswoman Melinda Malico.

Grantees have used WEEA money to do important things: One issued harsh criticism of the use of such nefarious terms as "housewife" and "ladies," while another blamed the 1999 Columbine High School massacre on "homophobia." One project led to a series of "checklists" to be used in "counteracting race and sex bias in educational material." One checklist item proscribed such beastly acts of stereotyping as "depicting dogs as masculine, cats as feminine."

Like a number of other government programs, WEEA allows an ideological clique that purports to speak "for women to turn sacred cows into cash cows--indefinitely. Grants often beget...more grants: Researchers churn out reports that claim to "document sexism in the public schools. This "discovery clearly calls for yet another grant to study the "problem."

In the early 1990s, for example, Nan Stein, director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, and other like-minded academics documented--or overstated, if you believe critics--widespread sexual harassment in public schools. Obviously, further study was mandated. Thus, in 1995, Stein received another WEEA grant ($90,929) to investigate "sexual harassment and gender violence in schools."

Other researchers try to nip what they see as harassment in the bud. Merle Froschl, of the New York City-based Educational Equity Concepts, Inc., received $139,126 to explore "gender-based teasing and bullying in grades kindergarten through five." In order to reeducate the pint-sized predators who lurk in the Romper Room set, Froschl helped write a special curriculum guide titled "Quit It!" telling how teachers can integrate discussions of teasing and bullying into the curriculum.

Youngsters are asked what makes them feel welcome or unwelcome at school. And, boy, do some of these kids need reeducation: In the pilot study, the children were asked to discuss the different ways boys and girls "annoy each other." One woefully unindoctrinated child said, "Boys chase, because that's what boys do." Oops!

Suggested remedy: Play a non-competitive version of tag in which "nobody gets 'out.'" This all-inclusive game of tag is called "Circle of Friends," and it sounds like fun...for the class goody-goodies. "Quit It!" isn't the only example of taxpayer money being spent on making up games that kids probably aren't going to want to play.

The taxpayers also coughed up money for a guide on how to conduct an "Equity Scavenger Hunt": Students are directed to "find indicators of [their] school's compliance with the law and its commitment to equity." Specifically, they can try to find "a copy of Ms. magazine from the library," a copy of such "classic texts" as The Feminine Mystique; The Female Eunuch, and The Second Sex. For added fun find "a physics or calculus course that has an equal number of female and male students enrolled."

For those who prefer direct political action to mere child's play, WEEA offers "Raising the Grade," a curriculum guide, which encourages teachers to enlist--or perhaps conscript--students in the gender equity cause. The guide's "suggestions for student action" include having the kiddies "write letters to the principal and the school board to acknowledge that schools are doing a good job hiring women and people of color. Talk about how this has improved your educational experience at the institution, provided you with role models, etc." Students can also "lobby the school board to allocate funds for gender equity training for school personnel."

For youngsters who feel compelled--or propelled--to weigh in on the merits of Title IX, the 1972 anti-sexual discrimination law, there is a sample letter: "We are girls and boys who are looking forward to feeling safe and supported as we excel in the areas we love. We know we might not have had the opportunity to do that twenty-five years ago so we're celebrating Title IX in our classroom."