ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, the subject of publicly supported single-sex education has generated considerable debate in legal and policy circles. Since 1996, much of this debate has centered on the Supreme Court's decision in the Virginia Military Institute case and how the Court's ruling intersects with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. In VMI, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking for the Court, stated that gender classifications must have “an exceedingly persuasive justification” in order to pass muster under the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. In subsequent years, VMI has become a key factor in determining the legality of efforts by school districts to establish single-sex schools and classes. At the same time, active federal enforcement under Title IX against these programs in recent decades has created continued confusion and uncertainty in school districts interested in establishing single-sex schools and classes for the social and educational benefits they promise girls and minority boys. School officials now find themselves in a legal bind. The VMI standard begs for evidence that such programs effectively meet permissible goals while the federal Office for Civil Rights prohibits schools from establishing the very programs critical to producing that evidence.
