Trump Administration Moves To Defund Teen Pregnancy Research Programs

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(07-30-2017, 04:46 PM)Benton Wrote: Understood but I'm not  referring specifically to this program. It's education funding in general.

Used to districts had more control over what they taught. I went to a district in Kentucky that taught abstinence only education after the 70s. We also were among the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the state from the 80s through the 90s... until education reform and state mandates of what was taught. Behold! After I was out of the district, they taught that sex can result in a child and bam rates went down. They took part in a federal grant 7-8 years ago and there was a noticeable drop after a year or two. The grant was aimed at std prevention but it also impacted teen pregnancy rates.

So I don't know a lot about this particular program, but I know there's districts , especially in the south, where they don't care about teen pregnancy rates as much as the idea that teaching basic biology should be prohibited.

Fair enough, and that's more of a educational guideline thing than an education funding thing from what you just described.

Moving fairly off topic from the thread but on topic with your post, yeah, I am a bit torn on educational guidelines. On one hand I like the idea of some federal guidelines so we aren't teaching creationism (other than as a religion elective or something), but on the other, too much federal interference in education has gotten us to the point where students aren't taught subjects, so much as taught to pass tests (started getting bad from W Bush's No Child Left Behind, I think).

Kids now are all taught how to pass tests in Chemistry, Pre-Calculus, and Classic English Literature... things that even if you weren't taught only to pass the test would likely be entirely pointless in 97% of people's lives. Meanwhile actual useful things like Home Ec, Shop, and the like have absolutely vanished to make way for more test preparations, and kids coming out of HS now can't cook, or fix anything, or change a flat tire on a car, or basic first aid, or make a budget with their money, or any other actual life skill.

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Back on thread, I think there can be a happy balance between not teaching it in schools and spending large sums of money on extra programs like the one that's being discussed to be defunded 2 years early like this one.

Ugh, even talking about sex ed and STD classes and such makes me remember having to sit through like a 4+ hour Safety Stand Down powerpoint on how your junk will rot off.