Hawai‘i DOE Wants $83,000 To Provide Data On Gender Equity In Schools

DOE has recently stepped up its oversight of high school sports, but parents say they want more information on how female athletes are treated.

Lauralee Pierce was taken aback when her daughter came home in September and asked for $300 for bus money. The athletics department at Kahuku High and Intermediate School no longer planned to pay for transporting cheerleaders to football games, Pierce’s daughter said, and families would have to pay for the buses or drive themselves.

The mother of the Kahuku sophomore thought the request was unreasonable, especially since the football team wasn’t being asked to do the same. To see if the school was treating boy and girl athletes equally — something required by a federal law called Title IX — Pierce requested a breakdown of each sports team’s budge