National
Another Bush-era policy has been reversed: The U.S. Department of Education has repealed a 2005 move under former President George W. Bush that weakened Title IX, the 1972 federal law that provided gender-parity in school athletic programs.
Under Bush, schools could justify not starting a new women’s sport based on non-responses to survey questions. In the DOE move, schools will have to match the proportion of female athletes to the proportion of women on campus, document the history of increasing sports for women, and prove the school has met the interest and ability of women to participate in athletics.
State
The Georgia Council for the Arts is safe for now. The state Senate included the Council in its version of the budget at a $1.7 million reduction from previous years’ funding, following protests by communities, artists and activists at the Capitol yesterday that depend on Council grants for arts programs and events. The House version of the budget eliminated the Council altogether. The Senate will vote on its version of the budget on Wednesday of this week then both versions will go to conference committee to work out the differences.
Local
Today’s radar hot spot: Bay Street west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
