DEBORAH SIMMONS: Boys-only school, ERA fight — it’s deja vu all over again

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

We were warned.

Separating boys from girls in public schools is not the problem. The problem is distractors who want you to think otherwise.

The proposal: Authorities in the nation’s capital want to open a boys-only high school in 2016-17. The school site has yet to be selected, although officials have said they think it should be in Southeast — not near the Navy Yard and the Washington Nationals’ stadium, though. The school would be in that part of Southeast where graduation rates are low and attendance in charter and private schools is desirable. It’s also a part of the city with high rates of poverty and crime.

Its political distinction is Ward 8, and it last was represented on the D.C. Council, the city’s lawmaking body, by Marion Barry, who died in November. Its school board member is a teacher, Tierra Jolly, who was seated last summer.

The new school’s student body will largely be black and Latino boys, falling in line with President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative to help boys and young men of color. Mayor Muriel Bowser has said the proposed school is part of her “Empowering Males of Color” initiative.

Several council members already have expressed support for a single-sex school, and the city’s attorney general, Karl Racine, is entertaining queries as to whether the new school would violate local or federal laws, specifically Title IX.

The Distractors: Feminist ideologists (and sore losers).

Much of the contention centers not on whether the single-sex school would discriminate against white boys. Or Asian boys. Or Native American boys. Or boys of Pacific Island heritage.

The contention doesn’t even pivot on whether the college-prep school would discriminate against gay, transgender, bisexual and other gender identities by boys.

The debate centers on girls.

Will girls be given the same opportunities and access as boys?

It’s the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) battle all over again.

Recall that feminists fought hard for the ERA and lost, even though they had powerful politicians like Sen. Evan Bayh on their side. But conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly blocked their attempt to rewrite the U.S. Constitution.

Instead, Mr. Bayh created another bulwark, Title IX of the 1972 education amendments, which essentially and often effectively says girls gotta get what the boys do when it comes to federal funds and schooling.

Mostly, though, the Title IX fight is resuscitated when determining whether athletic programs pass the smell test.

Still fighting the right fights, Mrs. Schlafly already has reminded us that they’re at it again.

In November 1981, Mrs. Schlafly wrote: “The equal rights principle looks toward a world in which men and women function as full and equal partners, with artificial barriers removed and opportunity unaffected by a person’s gender. Preparation for such a world requires elimination of sex separation in all public institutions where education and training occur.”

In December 2014, she wrote: “The Obama Administration is now trying to outlaw single-sex classrooms, a practice that has been growing as parents and teachers see its good results. The Obama Administration is discouraging that option in conformity with demands by the feminists who believe in the interchangeability of the genders and insist that schools forbid any deviation from their peculiar belief that there is no difference between male and female.”

Touche.

Girls used to take home economics and cooking classes while boys took wood shop and basic auto mechanics.

Boys learned “how things work” while girls learned how to make tomato consomm.

Boys and girls never took gym class together or showered together.

Now we’re heading toward “genderless” restroom facilities.

Single-sex schooling is not a thing of the past. Indeed, one of the most popular and successful boys-only schools in Southeast is Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys, a tuition-free Episcopal school founded in 2008.

As Yogi Berra might say, “It’s like deja vu all over again.”

The feminists want to duke it out for same-sex marriage, but they don’t cotton same-sex schooling?

• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.