Your government spends over $200 million of your tax dollars every year teaching kids about sex-education. And in the last few years, this number has gone up about $22 million per year. As the new Congress and new legislators grapple with what to do with the federal minimum wage, where to go with Iraq, and how to get along with one another, I have a suggestion for them. 

    Cut off government funding for sex-education in schools.

    Whether you belief in abstinence-only education or comprehensive, everyone can agree that this is a waste of money. People in favor of abstinence say they aren’t getting enough help from school districts, while people in favor of comprehensive education feel that they aren’t getting the money. This will all be put to rest once the government adopts my plan.

    First off, I should come clean. If I really had to pick a side, I would have to argue for abstinence-only education. The statistics on the effectiveness are all over the board, but from personal experience I feel that it is the best way to educate students. And I do want them to be educated.

    So where, you wonder, are students supposed to learn about sex? The mere fact that anyone has to ask that question anymore is a real concern. Kids need to learn about sex from their parents.

    I’m not real sure how parents gave up their right to educate their children on this issue in the first place, but then again, I’m also not real sure how schools came away from focusing on reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic and got onto condoms and contraception. This could probably explain why the U.S. is at the back of the pack in many subjects compared to the rest of the world. The student’s in Thailand are learning math; our students are learning where to pick up the cheapest condoms. 

    Did sex just become too awkward for parents nowadays? Are the kids just too embarrassed? I’m not really sure how having a half-hour conversation with your parents every once and a while is more embarrassing than taking a whole semester of health classes learning how to put a condom on a banana, but then again, I guess I have been out of my teenage years for nearly 2 months. Times sure are a changing. 

    Anyways, I’ve been hearing a lot of statistics on sex-education. People in favor of comprehensive teaching seem absolutely certain that the general public favors their side. Some abstinence-only advocates even concede that point, but say that the general public just doesn’t understand what kind of things will be taught once our government starts handing over all that money to the other side. This can all be solved if we just allow the parents to deal with the issue.

    Lockport, New York tried comprehensive sex-education for awhile. The Wilson Central School District’s school board eventually had to meet up over the continuing of the program because of legitimate concerns from the community. Several parents voiced concerns about a program that teaches fifth graders about homosexuality, masturbation, and abortion. How could they possibly do such a thing! Don’t they understand that comprehensive sex-education is the only kind that works? When I was in fifth grade, I wondered which girls I would have to run away from on the playground so as not to get cooties; what is this district possibly thinking? 

    Masturbation seems be a hot topic lately as several districts in Massachusetts were getting criticized for teaching about it to students as young as third grade. I would certainly love to put the issue of what type of education our children should have up for debate. This will never be voted on, however. Do you think supporters of comprehensive sex-education are going to allow parents to hear horror stories like these?

    The bottom line is that parents need to be more responsible. It may be difficult to find the time (or the patience) to talk to your kids, but it needs to be done. I don’t understand why most parents wouldn’t want to do this anyways; regardless of what your values are, they’re your values, don’t you want to share them with your children? This debate isn’t even a slippery slope; there is no slope. We have parents on one hand who are educating their children and keeping them away from the type of education they might otherwise be getting in public schools, and on the other hand we have parents finding out that their 8 and 9-year-olds are learning how to come out of the closet. 

    A reoccurring theme in our countries history is that when you let the government control something it gets screwed up. I’m not here to debate economics, but the examples of this are easy to come by; education, health care, businesses…the list goes on and on. The government controls how children are educated in most aspects; they don’t need to decide what your children need to know about sex.