Washington D.C. – Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) announced today her strong support for an amendment offered by Reps. Mink, Woolsey, Sanchez, and Morella restoring current gender-equity provisions in education previously threatened by H.R. 2.

Called H.R.2, the Student Results Act reauthorizes Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) -- the key federal assistance program for elementary and secondary schools. This education bill provides $8.35 billion in fiscal year 2000 for Title I grants. The bill also continues comprehensive school reform and requires that all teachers be fully qualified.

As it stood, the bill sought to limit much needed gender-equity provisions for which the amendment helped to restore:

• The Women's Educational Equity Act, which helps combat gender bias in the classroom;
  
  
• Teacher training to treat girls and boys fairly in the classroom; and
  
  
• Dropout prevention programs that target pregnant and parenting teens to encourage them to stay in school.

"I am quite pleased that this amendment has been included in H.R. 2. It clearly addresses a continued need for gender-equity provisions. Statistics bear out the grave truth that many young women remain under represented in the science and technology fields. This amendment helps recognize those disparities and provides critical funding to address their needs," said Waters.

What's more, the amendment allows Title I schools to set up programs to encourage girls and other under represented groups to pursue careers and advanced degrees in math, science engineering and technology.

Since the Women's Educational Equity Act's passage in 1974, America's schools have been charged with ensuring the same opportunities exist for girls as they do for boys. Although some progress has been made, significant gaps remain. Despite the fact that women represent close to 50 percent of America's population, they have little representation in the science and technology fields.

For example --

• Women have 7 percent of the engineering degrees
• Women have 36 percent of math degrees
• Women represent 31 percent of graduate students in science
• Women hold 8 percent of doctorates in physics

Moreover, high-school-age girls still lag behind boys in many areas: •

• Girls take 25 percent of computer science courses in high school, but are less likely than males to have course work in computer literacy and computer programing, •
• Girls take 2 percent of advanced placement test in physics
• Only 19 percent of girls as compared to 30 percent of boys earn 600 or above on SAT
• Less than 53 percent of girls take no high school math beyond Algebra 2

Even though H.R. 2 maintained many standards for public education in the reauthorization of ESEA, it lacked many of the gender equity provisions that have been proposed and, in some cases, have existed for decades.

While there appears much to be happy about the passage of the amendment, the Congresswoman remains cautious.

" Although, I am thoroughly pleased by this amendment, I am equally shocked by those who believe that there is not a need for gender-equity programs," said Waters.

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