Obama Administration Still Funding Ignorance Only Sex Ed
Mother Jones reports that the Obama administration is not only continuing to fund ignorance-only sex education programs, they’ve even declared one of them to be “evidence-based” and achieving results despite the fact that studies have shown it doesn’t work.
Thought “abstinence only” education was a thing of the past, at least at the national level? Looks like it’s still part of the officially sanctioned curriculum from the US Department of Health and Human Services for teen pregnancy prevention.
The HHS Office of Adolescent Health lists theHeritage Keepers Abstinence Education as one of the 31 “evidence-based programs” that “met the effectiveness criteria” for preventing teenage pregnancy. RH Reality Check flagged its inclusion on Tuesday, noting that the program was quietly added to the list sometime in April. The program is based in South Carolina and focuses on schools in the state…
The RH Reality Check piece notes that an August 2007 report on the Heritage program prepared for HHS found that it “had little or no impact on sexual abstinence or activity.” So it’s not exactly clear why it’s on a list of “evidence-based programs” that “met the effectiveness criteria” for HHS.
Yet the Heritage website now proudly boasts that it is “the only authentic abstinence education program in the United States identified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as having demonstrated it’s [sic] effectiveness.”
The more things change…
Gregory in Seattle:
May 4th, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Thank goodness Obama has a (D) after his name: that makes it all better.
busterggi:
May 4th, 2012 at 12:44 pm
I’d like to think that this continues only so it won’t inflame the Religious Reich into voting in higher numbers and that it will change after Obama is re-elected.
I’d like to, but I don’t.
slc1:
May 4th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
As they say, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
slc1:
May 4th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Are they also funding non-ignorance sex education? If so, that would be an improvement over the preceding administration.
Randomfactor:
May 4th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
If so, that would be an improvement over the preceding administration.
“We only put one-third as much horseshit in the baloney as the previous owners did.”
baal:
May 4th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
This lack of a desire to do ‘clean up’ is precisely the reason I didn’t want Obama back in the Dem. primary. I’ve never heard him express the idea that the administration was (would be) his or that it should carry out his political agenda.
Also, let’s not forget that at the very end of the Bush the lesser admin. the bushies plugged in a cadre of loyalists into all the open or semi-open vacancies. The Obama administration has not purged these folks.
Not that I’m all that happy about the various purges Bush the lesser did for ideological purity and loyalty.
slc1:
May 4th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Re Randomfactor @ #5
That’s not fair. The previous administration funded only only-ignorant sex ed.
iknklast:
May 4th, 2012 at 5:35 pm
slc1 – not fair? Of course, it’s better for those students who now receive comprehensive sex education. But it’s still crap for those students who are fed this line of nonsense with the blessing of the federal government. In fact, this may be worse. At least under the previous administration, there wasn’t a cultural divide – everybody got the same crap. Now some are getting real education, while others are getting crap.
If my child was one of the students getting abstinence only sex education, I certainly wouldn’t care if this government was somewhat better than the last – I would be angry. And I’m angry for all the parents and children who are getting shortchanged, even if there are fewer than there were. They deserve better, and most of the people who voted for Obama thought they were getting better.
He promised to restore science to its rightful place; instead, there have been a large number of areas where science is on the same scrap-heap where Dubya put it (can anyone say gray wolf?), only Obama will give the rhetoric of sound science. To me, it’s a lot worse because at least with Dubya, everyone knew he was anti-science. With Obama, people think he’s on the side of science.