Couple of interesting things today on abstinence education and sex education; other news items below.
First, the NY Times today did a front page story
on the issue. There are lots of internal links and audio clips within
the article. Here is the relevant educational law portion of the
article:
For the first time, however, Virginity Rules and 700 kindred abstinence
education programs are fighting serious threats to their future. Eleven
state health departments rejected abstinence education this year, while
legislatures in Colorado, Iowa and Washington passed laws that could
kill, or at least wound, its presence in public schools.
Second, and I hate to reference the election two days in a row, but since it is related to the issue, Barack Obama spoke on the issue of sex education at a Planned Parenthood meeting in DC and ABC News provided the video. He supports "age appropriate, science-based" sex education and is not in favor of abstinence only education. ABC News runs the headline: "Sex Ed for Kindergarteners 'Right thing to do' says Obama." Story.
The curricular issue of sex education programs has almost been a back-burner issue for the past couple of years, but perhaps it is making a comeback now that Intelligent Design seems to be in a lull.
In other news...
LA Unified's legal battles with charter school advocates continue: LA Times story.
A Maine school is under Federal Investigation for Title IX violations for alleged sexual harassment of a second grade student: Boston Globe story.
Finally, I am sure you did not notice amid all the Senate debate yesterday, last night and this morning over Iraq, but the Student Loan issue was on the floor of the Senate today and will likely come to a vote tomorrow. The President will not support the latest bill however, so a veto is possible. Here is Senator Kennedy's statement on the bill and a breakdown of the possible votes at MyDD.