The ACLU released a preliminary report today on single-sex education programs in public schools around the country. The report’s findings were gathered as part of our ongoing “Teach Kids, Not Stereotypes” campaign that has involved investigations in fifteen states, including Maine, that deprive both boys and girls of equal educational opportunities.
The report – which can be viewed here – found that single-sex education programs are overwhelmingly and unlawfully based on discredited science rooted in sex stereotypes and don’t offer parents any reasonable alternative. The ACLU is continuing to collect documents and investigate further, but we chose to release the preliminary report because the initial findings point so strongly toward the widespread use of sex-stereotypes instruction.
Maine is one of eleven states featured in the report. Our involvement stemmed from an investigation into Sanford School District, where a single-sex program had been operating that appeared to violate federal law by relying on harmful gender stereotypes. The ACLU of Maine demanded that the district halt the program in May, and the school committee agreed to abandon it the following month.
We’ll be curious to see what the full report says once other states are finished their investigations, but even with the partial findings we’ve come up with so far, it appears that single-sex education programs are a serious and widespread concern.
