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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2009 > February > 24
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tide turning against abstinence education?
Just a few days after none other than Bristol Palin, teenage mom and daughter of family values Republican Sarah Palin, said in an interview that expecting all teens to abstain from sex was “not realistic,” it appears Democrats in congress are seeking to whack funding for Bush-era programs that forced states to offer “abstinence only” programs in public schools if they wanted any federal aid for sex education. This led bunches of states to turn down federal money.
In fact, the language in a spending bill moving through congress actually prohibits federal money to be “used to disseminate scientific information that is deliberately false or misleading” as several key abstinence-only programs were routinely accused of doing.
Abstinence should absolutely be a central message of any sex education program. It just shouldn’t be the “only” message, as Bush required. Kids need accurate and comprehensive information so those who chose not to abstain, which is going to be a majority of them, can at least have a chance at avoiding other bad decisions.
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