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Is Title IX Truely Equal?
     “All men and women are created equally.” Women in the United States have had to battle for equal rights and opportunities throughout the history of this nation. The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution passed on August 18th, 1920. The 19th Amendment granted women in the United States the right to vote after many years of lobbying and protesting. Following the passage of the 19th Amendment, though, women still did not have equal opportunities in high schools and universities throughout the nation. Fifty-Two years later women finally would be granted equal opportunities in educational institutions with the passage of “Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 (Title IX and Sex Discrimination).”
     Title IX states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” Title IX is enforced in all fifty states, plus the District of Columbia, and all United States territories. 24,200 schools and universities are covered under it. Obviously, this all sounds good, but Title IX is not perfect and has some things that could be updated (Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972). 
     One loophole in Title IX is that the number of scholarships offered to men and women have to be equal, but the amount of men’s and women’s budgets can be different. The numbers do not lie, NCAA Division I colleges and universities do not spend equally on their men’s and women’s athletic departments. Looking at the 2010 fiscal year, NCAA Division I schools spent $20,416,000 on men’s operating expenses. They only though, spent $8,006,000 on their women’s operations expenses in the 2010 fiscal year. Breaking those numbers down, the team travel expense section is really interesting. NCAA Division I schools spent $2,125,000 on men’s teams travel. They only though, spent $949,000 traveling to women’s events. The numbers are very interesting, but remember not all sports are the same (NCAA Revenues/ Expenses Division I Report 2004-2010).