(Washington) State loses federal sex education funding

[Bigmack]

Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer

State loses federal sex education funding
Requirement for medical information sank grant

By CHRIS McGANN
P-I CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT

OLYMPIA -- The Bush administration is cutting off funding for abstinence-only sex education in Washington because this state now requires schools to provide additional, medically accurate information about preventing unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Up until this year, the state has received an annual $800,000 federal grant for abstinence-only sex education. The money was used to produce and air public service announcements as well as developing abstinence-only curriculums for schools.

The programs had been used in many cases alongside more comprehensive sex education programs taught at the discretion of individual school districts. This year, however, the Legislature passed a law that makes comprehensive sex education compulsory for all schools.

Advocates for the comprehensive sex education law argued that the new curriculum would help reduce teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. But regardless of the outcome, the federal government will no longer provide the grant, which would have been about $200,000 this year.

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/344701_education24.html

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Bushco will only fund things that don't work.

[joeybee12]

1. Good!

What else can I say. :shrug:

[bluerum]

2. Over the long term, decent education will save a lot more that $800,000 a year.

They are better off without the mis-administrations blood money.

[Akoto]

3. Sounds like other states need to do the same.

I don't think mentioning abstinence as an option is necessarily a bad thing, but to the exclusion of biological facts and methods of avoiding pregnancy and STDs? That's royally stupid, as most kids are not going to select abstinence (or will stay abstinent only for a while).

[JohnnyLib2]

4. Good for Washington state.

Let's hope Bush/Cheney don't decide to send in the troops, though.

[havocmom]

5. Good, students will get real education about sex and an object lesson on being screwed by GOP

It's a two-fer!

[robcon]

6. Federal government should have (almost) NOTHING to do with local education

Shouldn't fund it. Shouldn't put local "strings" on national education issues. It's a state thing - always has been, always should be.

Whether it's sex education, graduation requirements, teacher evaluations, testing requirements, etc. - (almost) all education issues should be local (state/municipal.)

Let the state and local governments decide on appropriate funding, standards and guidelines.

[truthisfreedom]

7. Good. We don't need this very useless "Nanny" government bullsh*t anyway. $200k is nothing compared

to the financial burden of a teenage pregnancy, to say nothing of the mother's personal losses.

[fortyfeetunder]

8. Teen pregs on the rise, abstinence only SE a possible factor

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/12/05/teen.births.ap/

"ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- In a troubling reversal, the nation's teen birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years, surprising government health officials and reviving the bitter debate about abstinence-only sex education.


The rise in teen births may be a statistical blip and not the beginning of a new upward trend, officials said. The birth rate had been dropping since its peak in 1991, although the decline had slowed in recent years. On Wednesday, government statisticians said it rose 3 percent from 2005 to 2006.

The reason for the increase is not clear, and federal health officials said it might be a one-year statistical blip, not the beginning of a new upward trend. However, some experts said they have been expecting a jump. They attributed it to increased federal funding for abstinence-only health education that doesn't teach teens how to use condoms and other contraception.

Some key sexually transmitted disease rates have been rising, including syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. The rising teen pregnancy rate is part of the same phenomenon, said Dr. Carol Hogue, an Emory University professor of maternal and child health. "It's not rocket science," she said."

[LynnTheDem]

9. HOW DARE Wa State provide "medically accurate information"!!!

Thank gawd George W. bUsh cut their funding!!!

:rofl:

Rightwingnuts are the stupidest MFers ever hatched.

[benld74]

10. That's BECAUSE abstinence programs DO NOT WORK!

[customerserviceguy]

11. When I lived in Shelton, WA

we had a giant sculpture of a stork outside of Mason General Hospital, since that county has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and abortion in the state, I joked that it was the local effort at sex education!