Of all the ways to get DCPS in compliance with Title IX regulations—the federal law that has effectively meant schools must provide equal opportunities for girls to participate in sports—a girls-only bowling program seems, on the surface, like an okay idea.

Stephanie Evans, DCPS’ first woman athletic director (and fourth A.D. in as many years), tells the Post:

“We wanted to make sure we were increasing the number of athletic opportunities for our females,” said Evans, whose office surveyed high school girls last year and adopted the two most-requested sports, flag football (debuting in the spring) and bowling. “And so, in the process of doing that, we didn’t want to go in and push any sports on the girls.”

Fair enough. Except, that sports is often about pushing kids outside of their comfort zones. Anyone forced into doing wind sprints in P.E. can attest to that. Really, this seems like an issue of money more than anything else. The Post notes that bowling is cheaper and has a lower bar to entry for students who wouldn’t play sports normally. But why not spend the money and resources (hmm, here’s something to do with the city budget windfall, perhaps?) to build up competitive women’s teams that would get girls into more physically demanding sports? That—unlike five weeks of hanging out at bowling lanes—would be a better-faith attempt at complying with federal law.

Photo by Dale Gillard via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License