Texas Leads Nation In Abstinence-Only Spending, Austin American-Statesman Reports

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 15 Jul 2008 - 6:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Texas leads the nation in spending on abstinence-only sex education and broadly imposes restrictions on what teachers are allowed to tell students about sex and contraception, the Austin American-Statesman reports. According to the American-Statesman, the $17 million in federal abstinence funding that Texas receives -- which was matched with $3 million in state funds last year -- is solely used to teach "the social psychological and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity."

According to the American-Statesman, the "education code" in Texas "treats human sexuality differently from the rest of the public school curriculum," which calls for course materials dealing with sexual matters to be reviewed by local advisory councils of parents and community representatives and for each school board to decide the specific content that is taught in school. In addition, public school teachers are not allowed to distribute condoms or teach how to use them properly. The American-Statesman reports that the state requires information about condoms be given "in terms of human use reality rates" -- an estimate that condoms on average are effective 85% of the time and that failures are typically the result of improper handling or inconsistent use.

State Rep. Garnet Coleman (D), who co-authored abstinence legislation in 1995, said that at the time, he believed the legislation still gave school districts room to fully inform students about condom and contraceptive use. However, he said conservatives have used the education code to limit the information students receive. Coleman said, "Abstinence should be discussed like a method of birth control, but that's where they're not following the law," adding, "I think they're just saying, 'Don't have sex.'"

Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokesperson for the Texas Education Agency, said that if they wanted to, individual school districts could broaden their discussion of sexual matters in the classroom. She added that although Texas schools are not required to teach sex education, state curriculum standards set expectations regarding students' knowledge of the issues. Ratcliffe said, "We set the ultimate goal so that students will know about sex education and abstinence, but we don't tell districts how to achieve the goal. We give them the flexibility to decide how." According to the American-Statesman, few school districts have taken advantage of that flexibility, leaving some teachers uncertain about how much information they can give their students.

Although not all school districts take federal funding for abstinence programs, some may contract with companies that do; for those that do not contract with such companies, they are still bound to the state education code, which is just as restrictive as abstinence-only federal parameters. Ten school districts in Central Texas have policies that limit instruction on contraceptives and emphasize that abstinence be taught as the only way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The Austin school district's policy allows for "spontaneous class discussions generated by student questions."

Rita Gonzales, a health teacher at Bowie High School, said she would like to discuss contraceptives with her students, adding, "We're hoping that the kids would stay abstinent until they are married, but we're not stopped from talking about birth control. We just can't show them how to use it." Jan Halstead, who has been the executive director of an abstinence program in a Central Texas school district, said she does not recall a time when teachers could not discuss contraceptives. "The way it's generally presented is, if you're in a relationship -- if you're married -- and you don't want to have a baby, here are some preventative methods," Halstead said, adding, "If you use this method, this is the percentage of times that it works and here's the time it doesn't work" (Mixon, Austin American-Statesman, 7/14).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.