Sex education program must be inclusive

A federal grant program available to the state Department of Health for sex education must be used to promote abstinence as the single way to avoid teen pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases.

But a new state law requires that sex education materials used in public schools, including those developed by the state Department of Health, explore a full range of methods for preventing unintended pregnancies and STDs.

No small wonder that the federal government has balked at delivering the annual $800,000 federal grant to the state for its sex education program.

This looks like a case where the conditions attached to the federal grant are too burdensome to accept, especially in light of the new state law.

Abstinence programs call on children to just say "no" to sex prior to marriage. The Bush administration has pursued this approach to sex education with fervor, spending $176 million on abstinence-only programs in 2007, which is nearly triple the program's annual budget before the president took office.

This despite the fact that study after study has raised serious questions about this myopic approach to sex education.

The U.S. Congress ordered a study of this controversial topic last year, relying heavily upon empirical data. The report by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. found no statistical difference between children in a community who attended sex abstinence programs and those in the same community, in terms of the percentage and age of teens having sex. In each group, about half of the teens were sexually active, according to the study.

The 2007 state Legislature had a lengthy and vigorous discussion of sex education in public schools. Lawmakers passed a bill that prohibits abstinence-only sex education in public schools that do chose to tackle the subject.

The measure calls on public schools to rely on a sex ed curriculum that is medically and scientifically accurate, addressing all aspects of sexuality, including the use of contraceptives.

Obviously, this is a very emotional topic that reaches into the realm of morals, politics and religion.

But the Bush administration has not done the next generation of adults any favors by pursuing such a narrow sex education agenda. At least 14 states have refused to apply for the federal matching grants, contending that abstinence-only programs don't work.

Like it or not, young children, pre-teens and teenagers are bombarded with conflicting, promiscuous messages and images of pre-marital sex in advertising, movies, television shows, internet sites and just about every other medium of modern U.S. society.

If the sex education programs offered in public schools, coupled with strong family values, can bring some sanity to the already difficult process of discovering one's sexuality, that's a good thing, even if it means losing access to a federal grant.