Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has rejected $1 million in federal funding for abstinence-only education, telling the Bush administration that the programs just don't work.
The move makes Arizona the 16th state to reject federal funding for abstinence-only programs. Study after study (the most recent being last November) has shown that teaching "abstinence only" in schools has done nothing to reduce teen sex.
The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes" including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use."
Since 1996, the federal government has wasted over a half a billion taxpayer dollars on abstinence-only programs. A 2006 study by the independent Society for Adolescent Medicine called the programs “scientifically and ethically flawed”.
No comments:
Post a Comment