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NCFM-LA Mentioned in MI Ballot Proposal Story
Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2005-03-11 20:54
The NCFM-LA lawsuit against California was metnioned in a news story regarding a challenge to Michigan's state university admission policies.
Click "Read more..." for more.On-line, this story is found at:
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/business/index.ssf?/base/news-23/111048131026580.xml&storylist=mibusiness
Ballot proposal could threaten programs for women, study says
3/10/2005, 2:55 p.m. ET
By DEE-ANN DURBIN
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) - Breast cancer screenings, science camps for girls and other programs for women would be threatened under a proposal that could appear on Michigan's ballot in 2006, a University of Michigan researcher says.
Susan Kaufmann, associate director of the Center for the Education of Women, planned to release her report Friday at the Michigan Women's Summit. The summit was being held in three locations connected by satellite. Among those scheduled to attend were Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the women presidents of Michigan, Michigan State University and Western Michigan University.
Jennifer Gratz, who sued the University of Michigan over its admission policies, now is promoting the ballot measure for the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. The group says the measure would ban universities and state and local governments from discriminating based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.
Gratz said Thursday that the proposal is taking aim at discrimination in public contracts and public education but wouldn't affect health programs.
"The University of Michigan is reaching. They're grabbing at straws," Gratz said. "They are practicing discrimination based on race, and they want to change the debate."
The group wants to get the proposal on the ballot in Michigan in November 2006. State officials are reviewing 508,000 signatures that the group submitted in January.
Kaufmann said a similar measure that passed in California in 1996 has eliminated or changed many programs originally meant to help women. A summer science academy that used to emphasize education of girls and minorities had to change its focus, she said. Other programs now target low-income communities instead of girls and minorities, Kaufmann said.
Kaufmann said the National Coalition of Free Men, a men's rights group, is challenging all state programs for women in California in a lawsuit. The group also filed a lawsuit against California domestic violence shelters receiving state funding, but a judge upheld that funding under a separate California law that protects programs for women and minorities.
Kaufmann said Michigan law has no protections against such lawsuits, so state- or locally funded programs for women could be at risk. That would include scholarships for women, government programs that help women-owned businesses and gender-specific screenings for cervical or prostate cancer, Kaufmann said.
"(The proposal) does not provide for exceptions for the health and well-being of affected populations, but instead seeks a blanket ban on targeted programs based in race, gender and ethnicity," Kaufmann said in the study.
Gratz said opponents should ask themselves why they believe programs should give special attention to one race or gender.
"If it's good for one gender or if it's good for one race, why wouldn't it be good for everyone?" she said.
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On the Net:
Michigan Civil Rights Initiative: http://www.mcri2004.org/
Center for the Education of Women: http://www.umich.edu/~cew/
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