February 27, 2003    Rod Paige  Secretary of Education  400 Maryland Ave. SW  Washington, DC 20202    Dear Secretary Paige:    This morning, I read some very disturbing news in regards to a reported position from you and the Department of Education concerning Title IX.    The stories indicated that you only plan to consider the recommendations presented to you by the Commission on Opportunities in Athletics that were unanimously approved.    If this is true, that is a poor position to take. That decision would eliminate all of the hard work and efforts of the Commissioners and all of those involved in the process. Not only does it not make any sense, but it also allows continued discrimination in the current Title IX enforcement rules.    Think about it. What if a bill goes through Congress and is passed, but does not receive unanimous support? Is it still a law? What if the Supreme Court votes on a case, but does not receive the votes of every Justice? Is is still a legal precedent? Of course they are!!!    It is impossible to expect that you will get complete agreement on every aspect of Title IX, considering the complexity of the law and the variety of viewpoints on the issue. Certainly, there were many recommendations passed by the Commission that were not unanimous that offer valuable ideas and approaches to providing a fair system of enforcement.    It is especially impossible to get agreement on substantive proposals when you named two biased individuals to the Commission who are advocates of radical special interest groups. Julie Foudy is the current president of the Women's Sports Foundation, the most vocal sports quota advocate organization. Donna De Varona was a founder of the Women's Sports Foundation. Foudy and De Varona have been obstructionists in the Commission process all the way through. There is no doubt that they had their minds made up even before the first meeting, before any of the testimony was heard, before any of the open debates. The fact that they would not sign off on the final report tells you that they have no interest in seeing any changes to Title IX enforcement, regardless if they have merit.    By only reviewing the unanimous proposals from the Commission, you are giving Foudy and De Varona veto power over the entire 15-member panel. This position would in effect throw away all the hard work and effort of the Commissioners, as well as waste all the taxpayers dollars spent on the Commission process.     The United States is based upon a majority rules principle. Requiring unanimous consent is not only unrealistic, but it is un-American.    Sincerely,    Rich Bender  Executive Director    cc: George W. Bush, President  Gerald Reynolds, Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights  Karl Rove, Senior Advisor to the President  J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives