Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I thank Senator Torricelli very much for his statement and for his very important question. States, school districts…”

“I thank Senator Torricelli very much for his statement and for his very important question. States, school districts, and individual public schools all over the country have either tried to implement same-gender programs and have been forced to end them, or have been dissuaded from even trying by the threat of lawsuit or termination of federal funds by the Department of Education. The fundamental purpose and intent of my amendment, then, is to make it clear to these schools that it is the will of Congress that they be allowed to institute voluntary same-gender programs if they believe it will help further their important mission of educating students of both sexes. In no way, however, could this amendment possibly allow discrimination against either girls or boys. As you know, the text of my amendment is straight forward. It simply adds same-gender schools and classrooms as one of the allowable uses for federal funds under Title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. As you also know, Title VI is a very flexible block-grant program that can be used for virtually any education reform effort a school district wishes to try, arguably including same-gender programs.”