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Fox Restricts Federal Aids Education Grants Idaho School Districts Can Teach Only Sexual Abstinence As A Prevention Method To Qualify

From Staff And Wire Reports

Idaho school districts that receive federal AIDS prevention grants cannot teach any prevention method but sexual abstinence, State Schools Superintendent Anne Fox has decided.

The decision ends the previous policy of funneling the limited federal cash to districts that have sex education programs focusing on abstinence but also acknowledging that a large bloc of high school students - possibly approaching half - have had sexual contact and need more information to reduce their risk of infection.

At stake is the way about $240,000 is used by Idaho’s public school system. While only enough to finance overall training programs and modest one-time grants to 20 or so of the state’s 112 school districts, the amount is a third of the cash Idaho receives from the federal government to underwrite AIDS education.

Districts can apply for the grants this winter, said Department of Education spokeswoman Rhonda Edmiston. This is the second year they will be offered.

“We’re not denying anybody anything,” Edmiston said. “We changed the criteria by which the districts get money.”

Lloyd Kolbe, director of the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta which doles out the federal assistance, said Idaho may be the first state to shift to the most restrictive approach to education about AIDS and all other sexually transmitted diseases.

Fox said she made the move in response to public demand after five years under the previous policy, rejecting suggestions that she was bowing to fundamental religious interests opposed to modern sex education courses.

“I talked to a lot of patrons, parents, teachers, and most people are asking for a higher standard,” Fox said on Tuesday. “We want to set a higher standard. … If they want to go beyond that locally, if they want to do anything more, they have local money and they can.”

Some experts said there is no excuse for altering the policy, and one warned that the more restrictive standard will be used to justify essentially abandoning sex education in public schools.

“There’s absolutely no research out there that shows abstinence-only programs have any effect at all whereas there is a lot of research by the Centers for Disease Control and other groups that show abstinence-based programs are very successful,” said Cameron Lewis of the Idaho Sexually Transmitted Diseases-AIDS Program in the Division of Health.

Fox also rejected the contention that denying federal assistance to districts that go beyond an abstinence-only approach contradicts her long-standing commitment to keeping public school policy in the hands of the local districts.

“The state should be a leader and send a strong message that this is an area where young people need to learn restraint and self-discipline … because the disease is so deadly,” Fox said.

Kolbe said the Centers For Disease Control believes the debate over AIDS education policy is one that should be all inclusive.

“These are life-and-death decisions in many ways,” he said. “We need to do anything we possibly can to get people not to engage in intercourse, but we also know the extent to which young people do engage in intercourse and the steps they need to take to protect themselves.”

Planned Parenthood of Idaho reported last spring that a survey of high school students that did not include Boise and Idaho Falls showed nearly half the seniors had already had intercourse and more than half did not use a condom the most recent time.

“All of us agree abstinence needs to be taught,” said Lois Volkening, district nurse for the Moscow schools.

But, she asked, “why is this stipulation being put on federal money? It’s up to the school board and the patrons to decide. Don’t take the choice away from us.”

, DataTimes