is this going to be good news?

abstinence programs being cut, reported by the statesman....

Some providers of sexual abstinence programs in Texas schools are cutting back their operations because $50 million in federal funds for abstinence promotion quietly expired last week. Despite an 11th-hour extension of funding until Dec. 31, the effect is still "devastating," said Mike Goss, president of the faith-based, nonprofit Abstinence America program that operates in Houston schools. "It's going to wipe out programs far and wide."

However, the impact in Central Texas classrooms will likely be minimal. And statewide, abstinence will still be taught, though some private agencies may no longer offer the curriculum in some school districts. Goss said he has scaled his program back from 16 Houston area schools to four schools.

States were informed this week they could receive the stop-gap funding if they apply quickly to the federal government. Officials with the Texas Department of State Health Services said they haven't decided whether to do so.

Texas receives the largest share of federal abstinence grants, about $4.7 million a year, through a program known as Title V. The money goes to more than 50 instructional programs, most of them offered by a mini-industry of private groups that contract with various school districts. The programs match every $4 in federal funds with $3 of their own, according to state officials.
The Texas Education Agency requires public high schools to teach abstinence as the "preferred choice" to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Each school district decides how and when that instruction will take place, and whether a contractor will provide it.
The Austin school district does not receive Title V funds, district health coordinator Tracy Lunoff said, and should be minimally affected by the funding cut. The school district uses a free manual on human sexuality that came with textbooks approved in 2005, said Lunoff, as well as volunteer abstinence speakers who appear at high schools.

More than 30 other Central Texas school districts, including Round Rock, San Marcos, Manor and Georgetown, use Worth the Wait, an abstinence curriculum for elementary through high school students developed by Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple.
Terry Buckley, program manager for Worth the Wait, said the program will no longer be able to offer meals during presentations to teachers and community members, but its work will continue, she said.

Some programs are moving staff from paying jobs to volunteer jobs, and others are trying to garner local funding, said Karen Flowers, director of the Texas Department of State Health Services abstinence program. The state called a meeting with its contractors last week to discuss their options, she said.

The funding problems occurred after Congress voted in June to eliminate Title V funding, leaving states and abstinence contractors to pick up the tab. Despite the three-month extension, abstinence proponents — frustrated with the new Democratic-led Congress — say they are bracing for the worst.

"We've just kind of been in denial. We don't really want to believe this is happening, but we're trying to come up with a plan B and a plan C," said Tonya Waite, program director of the Longview Wellness Center, an East Texas abstinence program that's in eight counties and 32 school districts. The center planned on serving six additional counties this year, but Waite said it won't be able to because of the lost funds. It will also downsize its aggressive media campaign by producing only two to three pro-abstinence commercials this year. In the past, the center produced 16 commercials a year featuring students from local schools.

Congress enacted the Title V grant program in 1998, but it has recently come under increasing criticism. Eight states, including California, New Jersey and Wisconsin, have rejected the funding, opting instead to put money into comprehensive sex education that allows them to put more emphasis on condoms and other forms of birth control. (i have hope but will texas follow suit???)

If federal abstinence money ends for good in December, supporters may ask the state to step in.
Legislators say it's too soon to tell what will happen. However, it is typically the federal government's job to pay for the programs that it starts, said state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, a member of the House Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services.
Both she and another committee member, Rep. John Zerwas, R-Fulshear, say they need more hard numbers on the programs' effectiveness.

Zerwas said he supports abstinence-based education. "But at the end of the day, we hold our agencies accountable and unless we can see some evidence that these types of programs are having this impact for what they're intended to do, it becomes difficult for us as a committee to continue funding them," Zerwas said. "If they're not, I'm willing to accept that as much as anybody else."


i have a lot to say about this....but it will come later. my dreams of decreasing the teen pregnancy rate in texas have returned....mostly thanks to the texas conference for women. i just needed a little inspiration to keep going. more thoughts will come soon :)