Jenny Egan, Fellow

Yesterday the House Education and Workforce Committee approved a partial reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that is “a 180-degree pivot from the current version of the law.”

Yesterday during mark-up, Representative Foxx (R-NC) summed up the goal of the bill. Foxx said that if she had her druthers she “would get the federal government completely out of the education business.” According to Foxx, the next best thing to getting rid of a federal role in education is the current Republican proposal.

For some history about why the federal government is involved in the education business, we have to go back to the beginning of ESEA.  Until 1965, the federal government didn’t provide education funding to the states. After Brown v. Board of Education, schools across the U.S. were slowly beginning integration efforts and the civil rights movement was shining a spotlight on the huge disparities experienced by people of color in their communities and schools. The original ESEA was aimed at correcting that problem and improving the dismal education prospects of poor children. The bill was primarily a civil rights bill, meant to act as a catalyst for ensuring educational equity by closing achievement gaps between rich and poor, black and white.

Working on the issue of Title IX and athletics, the thing I hear most from opponents is that “girls just aren’t that interested in sports.” At NWLC, we believe strongly in the mantra “if you build it they will come.” I know it’s true because I’ve watched my sister do just that at a middle school in California.

When my sister, Sarah Egan, started teaching at Benjamin Franklin Intermediate School in 2009, there were only two girls’ basketball teams with about 20 players between them. The boys’ basketball program, on the other hand, was vibrant, had many teams, and over 70 participants. Basketball was a big part of the culture of Ben Franklin, the students talked about it in the hallways all the time, but girls’ participation numbers were extremely low.

Members of the Benjamin Franklin girls’ basketball program attending a Stanford women’s basketball game. Coach Sarah Egan is pictured on the lower left.

Benjamin Franklin is in Daly City, CA – just south of the San Francisco city line. It’s a predominantly low-income Title I school that is 94% minority. More than half of the kids receive free or reduced lunch. Unlike their suburban counterparts, that many of the girls at Ben Franklin lack the access and confidence garnered through early exposure to team sports. Most had never stepped foot on the court.

“I knew and understood the impact that sports had on my life and knew that it could have the same impact on others. I wanted more girls and I set out to find them,” Sarah said. She spent the majority of the first two seasons recruiting players and demonstrating how to shoot with one hand instead of two, how to make a jump stops, and how to pivot. Her first year coaching, the teams had a 3-13 record. The next year wasn’t any better.

But things have started to turn around.

This year the girls are off to a 6-7 start. Eighty girls showed up for six weeks of mandatory open gym before they even got a chance to try-out for the team. Ben Franklin now has 40 girls playing on four girls’ basketball teams – double what it was only two seasons ago. The program boasts five coaches and an assistant coach – all recruited by Sarah.