Good news for teen NYers and their parents: NYS kicks the Federal Abstinence Only Sex Ed Habit.**

[BurtWorm]

:patriot:


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--abstinencegrants0921sep21,0,434835,print.story
Newsday.com
NY rejects federal funding for abstinence-only sex education

By JESSICA M. PASKO

Associated Press Writer

3:44 PM EDT, September 21, 2007

ALBANY, N.Y.

Federal and state funding for abstinence-only sex education will end in New York and state money will now go to programs deemed more effective, officials announced this week.

The state received up to about $3.7 million annually from the federal government for abstinence-only programs since 1998, according to state Health Department spokeswoman Claudia Hutton. Another $2.6 million in state money was allocated each year for the programs.

As of Oct. 1, those state funds will be redirected to expand comprehensive sex education programs, state Health Department Commissioner Richard Daines said.

"The Bush administration's Abstinence-Only program is an example of a failed national health care policy directive, based on ideology rather than on sound scientific-based evidence that must be the cornerstone of good public health care policy," Daines said in a statement posted on the agency's Web site Thursday.

New York does not mandate sex education and leaves it up to individual school districts and communities to devise their own curriculums. Most abstinence-only programs in the state are operated by religious organizations, according to a recent New York Civil Liberties Union report. Programs run by the state include discussion of abstinence along with information about preventing pregnancy and disease, according to Daines.

[ThomCat]

1. Yes!

We have no need for those federal funds if it's just going to be used to teach dangerous shit to our kids. That dangerous shit will only increase our long term costs anyway.