Remember the Presidential debates way back in October? When Obama said that we need to take a scalpel to the budget to eliminate unnecessary and/or ineffective programs? A few programs came to my mind that night:
- The D.A.R.E. Program, on which we spend somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.3 Billion dollars per year despite it being demonstrated ineffective in repeated studies and declared so by the Surgeon General
- The War on Drugs
- Abstinence-only sex education, which has been widely criticized by just about every major scientific community (e.g., American Academy of Pediatrics, National Association of School Psychologists, and American Psychological Association), as well as just about anyone who can put two and two together and see that there are often strong positive correlations between abstinence-only sex ed programming and teen pregnancy and STD rates (see The Education of Shelby Knox for one such story).
Does it hurt anyone else's head to read this week's headline: "Teen Mom Bristol Palin: the New Face of Abstinence"? Please say yes. I'm not entirely sure of the rates of premarital sex in the U.S., but one longitudinal self-report study found rates of over 90% that have remained steady since the 1950s. Bradley Wright, a sociology professor at UConn, has some interesting stats about religiosity and sexual activity here. What I find most interesting is that the lowest rate on that list is 45%, indicating that nearly half of those who report being active in the "other religion" category still report engaging in premarital sex. So if we have at least half of the population engaging in some sort of sexual activity (I'm not sure how these studies defined it) before marriage, is it really smart to push abstinence-only? I say absolutely not. And I'm pretty happy to be part of a community of school psychologists (the National Association of School Psychologists) promoting the (research-based, people, always research-based) ideas on sex ed that you can read about here.
So, back to President Obama. In his proposed 2010 budget (find a link here), he eliminates funding for Community-Based Abstinence Education and a few other programs along similar lines. This cut makes me happy. It won't end abstinence-only programs, which is fine. It's their right to continue. But it will end taxpayer-supported funding for programs that don't work and don't apply to at least half of the population. Maybe it will open the door to comprehensive education programs that can indeed promote abstinence, but will also back up those idealistic thoughts with tangible lessons and skills we can give children to do what they're probably going to do anyway in a way that won't hurt them.
"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love."
- Butch Hancock
- Butch Hancock
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