Texas Leads Nation In Abstinence Education Dollars

AUSTIN (AP) – Texas spends more money on abstinence education programs than any state in the country. The debate rages on whether it’s worth it.

By spending $17 million last year, the state ran its total since 1982 to almost $117 million. Most of it was federal funding, but Texas also used $32.4 million of its own money.

Meanwhile, federal statistics in June showed that Texas was significantly ahead of the national average in students from ninth through 12th grade who had sexual intercourse. The state’s number was 52.9 percent, compared to 47.8 in the U.S.

Also, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Texas youths were less likely to use condoms.

Public schools in Texas are not required to offer sex education, but those that do must make the lessons abstinence-focused. State law says instructions about condoms must be couched in terms of how often they fail.

Abstinence-only supporters say more comprehensive sex education sends a mixed message to teenagers that having sex at their age is fine. Opponents cite surveys that they say prove abstinence lessons are failing.

Regardless, a change in Texas policy does not appear likely. A spokeswoman for Governor Rick Perry says he is comfortable with the law and supports abstinence programs.

But the state lawmaker who co-authored the abstinence legislation in 1995 says the law was not meant to eliminate comprehensive sex education in schools.

Democrat Garnet Coleman of Houston said he put up the bill at a time when he feared conservative state officials would abandon sex education completely. He said the interpretation has morphed into abstinence-only, which wasn’t the idea.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)