Why Sex Education Is So Bad In The U.S.

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sex ed in the u.s is kind of a joke take

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for example this clip from tina fey's

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mean girls don't have sex

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because you will get pregnant and die

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with the majority of u.s students

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reporting they've had sex before

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graduating high school the type of sex

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ed they receive is a big deal for

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themselves personally and for the

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economy direct medical cost of

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unintended pregnancy in the united

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states totaled at least 5.5 billion

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dollars in 2018 a rise from the 2011

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estimate of 4.6 billion dollars but

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there's been a debate spanning decades

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about what information to include in the

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curriculum we believe that sex education

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is an economic justice issue for the

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ability of giving young people the

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determination over their own decision

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making as it relates to families and

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sexual activity and behavior

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as a society becomes more diverse it's

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ever more difficult to have any sort of

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consensus on a subject like sex and

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sexuality because it's so deeply

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connected to our ideas about ourselves

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as human beings

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so the politics of this are complicated

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most young people are getting something

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they're just not getting very much sex

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education there is no national or

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federal mandate around sex education and

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so what kids are taught in schools

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varies by

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state by county even by school only in

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sex ed is the sex ed teacher and joint

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actually change how the kids behave out

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of school and this may be an impossible

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burden so what does sex education mean

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for the economy and what happens when

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some students are left behind

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sex education didn't become a part of

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the public school system until the early

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20th century why do babies have fathers

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there was a panic in american cities

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about sexually transmitted diseases

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middle and upper middle class white men

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were patronizing prostitutes which has

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always been a conduit for stds infected

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prostitutes are being legally removed

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for cure and rehabilitation and we're

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going home and infecting their wives

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there was a rise in reported cases of

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venereal disease among young people

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during the first world war

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as more and more soldiers got in effect

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with stds that the federal government

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started to sponsor efforts at sex ed

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preventing the spread of sexually

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transmitted infections is one common

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goal of sex ed another is preventing

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unintended pregnancies especially among

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teenagers

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there are two general approaches to

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adolescent sex education one is

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abstinence only until marriage which is

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also called sexual risk avoidance this

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curriculum teaches that abstaining from

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sex is the expected behavior for

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teenagers and frequently excludes

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information about contraception options

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and other safe sex practices my name is

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marianne mozak and i'm the president and

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ceo of a national nonprofit called

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ascend and we support the sexual risk

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avoidance education when you say the

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word abstinence only it seems that it

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would be inferring that abstinence is

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the only thing we talk about in a sexual

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risk avoidance program it's way more

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than that it's very holistic and talks

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about lots of broader topics that impact

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a person's life the second curriculum is

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called comprehensive sex education which

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provides students with information about

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abstinence as well as safer sex

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practices such as contraception use and

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ways to reduce risk for contracting an

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sti

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these programs may also include

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discussions of miscarriages abortion

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sexual orientation and gender identity

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those are the extremes most programs

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fall someplace in the middle the middle

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ground curriculum is usually called

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abstinence plus these programs typically

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stress abstinence as the best way to

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prevent pregnancy and sti transmission

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while also including information about

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contraception and condom use i think we

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all agree that very young adolescents

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ought not to be engaging in behaviors

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that could get them pregnant or cause

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them to have an std

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i think that really the divide is on how

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do you get there do you get there by

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withholding critical information or do

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you get there by providing the

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information and developing the skills

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that young people are going to need to

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stay out of risky situations the

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government doesn't set any requirements

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for sexual health education policy

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unless a program is receiving federal

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funding that means each state sets its

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own policies which leads to inconsistent

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curricula across the country i did a

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study that showed that even among

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republicans there was support for

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teaching practically every topic in sex

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education when we've had controversy in

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this country over sex education the

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truth is it has really been caused by a

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very small vocal minority and i think

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that's created the perception that there

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is more debate and dissent about sex

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education than there actually is in

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communities across the country despite

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this narrowing of public opinion sex

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education policy is still inconsistent

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across the u.s with some states not

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requiring schools to teach any sex

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education at all 32 states and

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washington dc require students receive

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some kind of sex education according to

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the sex ed advocacy group secas 33

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states require the curricula to

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emphasize abstinence whenever sex or hiv

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education is taught and 16 states

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require instruction on contraception

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only 19 states require that lesson plans

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be medically accurate what we discovered

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was that most kids can get access to

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that basic information about you know

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condoms and

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and so forth from a variety of sources i

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mean you know you see it on tv mtv shows

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like 16 and pregnant and teen mom

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potentially contributed to lower teen

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birth rates according to a 2014 study

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from the national bureau of economic

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research because i'm pregnant

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the researchers concluded that these

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shows led to a 5.7 reduction in team

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births between 2009 and 2010.

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sex education has some big public health

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goals and if they aren't achieved they

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can have serious economic consequences

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teenagers who unintentionally become

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pregnant tend to receive less education

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and are less likely to have a spouse

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with whom they can share in the

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financial support of raising a child

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society as a whole loses big time

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because we lose the productivity babies

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born to teens are much more susceptible

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to being low birth weight and having

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other health conditions that bear down

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on the health care system raise our

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health care costs a lot of those costs

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get funded through public dollars when

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it comes to teen pregnancy it is a

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little bit challenging to figure out

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economic impacts because all too often

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the young people who experience teen

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pregnancy are already very low income so

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the fact that they remain low income may

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be more the result of the fact that it's

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really hard to change economic quintiles

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in this country

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versus really being associated with

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being an early parent the high cost of

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teen pregnancy may have pushed

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mississippi into legislating sex

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education requirements in 2009 teen

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births in mississippi cost taxpayers

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nearly 155 million dollars according to

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a report from the mississippi economic

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policy center the report attributes

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these costs to lower wages among teen

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parents higher incarceration rates for

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the children of teen parents and

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increased foster care costs in 2011

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mississippi governor haley barbour

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signed a law that required all school

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districts to adopt a sex education

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curriculum family planning allows

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parents to control the timing of when

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they have children how many children

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they have which allows them to

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be able to prioritize how to pursue

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their education and career there have

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been a number of studies on birth

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control itself which shows that any one

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dollar investment in family planning

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ends up saving four to seven dollars in

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terms of preventing unintended pregnancy

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on the other end that certainly saves

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money in terms of the economy absolutely

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but sexual delay is so important three

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out of five children who are living in

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poverty live in families that are headed

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by unwed mothers and we know the impact

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of single parents in terms of the

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benefits the entitlement programs that

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we have in place for them and that that

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all impacts the economy access to birth

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control options such as the pill is

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correlated with higher earnings

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potential for women many women with

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access to the pill have lower wages in

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their 20s as they pursue more education

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but then their income grows more rapidly

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in their 30s and 40s compared to women

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who did not have access to the pill

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preventing the spread of sexually

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transmitted infections also has economic

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impact the cdc estimates that in 2018

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about one in five people in the u.s had

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an sti with half of new sti cases among

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people aged 15 to 24.

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the cdc estimates stis cost the us

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nearly 16 billion dollars in healthcare

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costs alone

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care for 15 to 24 year olds made up an

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estimated 26 of that total cost testing

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and trading for sexually transmitted

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infections does incur a huge cost

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through

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both public insurance private insurance

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individual costs and of course the

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lifelong costs of some of the viral stds

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for a particular individual who may be

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having to go to the doctor more

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buy more treatments throughout their

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life it can be a really high cost

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there is no federal policy in the united

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states that governs sex education

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rather the way that the federal

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government is involved in sex education

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is by appropriating limited funding for

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certain kinds of approaches the us

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government began funding abstinence-only

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programs in the 1980s during the reagan

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administration as fear of hiv and aids

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spread throughout the country frequently

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these programs were faith-based the

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amount of money the federal government

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puts into sex education really expanded

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as part of welfare reform in 1996 and

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since then there has been some funding a

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couple hundred million dollars that has

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really gone back and forth the funding

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for abstinence-only education has varied

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with the electoral cycle so during the

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obama era it went down during the trump

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era it went back up in 2015 the federal

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government provided about 55 million

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dollars in 2021 that number was up to

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110 million the obama administration was

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the first to try to establish some

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evidence-based metrics to federal

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funding they also created the teen

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pregnancy prevention program in order to

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strengthen federal funding for more

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medically accurate evidence-based

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programs but they did not discontinue

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the sexual risk avoidance programs the

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teen pregnancy prevention program which

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was established in 2010 is a national

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evidence-based grant program to develop

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and evaluate new approaches to prevent

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unintended pregnancies and stis among

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adolescents the program has been funded

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to the tune of about 100 million dollars

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each year through fiscal year 2021. in

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july 2021 the house passed a bill that

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would allocate 130 million dollars to

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the program that would last through

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september 2022. as of december 2021 that

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bill has not passed the senate the

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federal government also provides funds

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through the competitive personal

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responsibility education program this

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funding stream supports a variety of

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evidence-based programs that focus on

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young people ages 10 to 19 who are

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homeless in or aging out of foster care

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living with hiv or aids

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victims of human trafficking or living

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in areas with high adolescent birth

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rates the program's goals are to prevent

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pregnancy and stis by emphasizing

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abstinence and contraception it

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typically receives roughly 70 to 75

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million dollars in funding per year

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[Music]

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both abstinence-only and comprehensive

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sex ed proponents claim victory in that

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the teen birth rate in the u.s has

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fallen to a new low every year since

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2009.

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the american approach has always

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emphasized collectivity after all that's

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what a rate is right an std rate or a

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pregnancy rate that's a collective

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measure a collective outcome and the

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european approach has been much more

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focused on the individual helping each

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individual develop what the sex

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educators call a healthy sexual life now

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that's really difficult in a diverse

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society because healthy is an extremely

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loaded and evaluated term and what's

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healthy to one set of individuals or

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communities may not be healthy to

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another i hope to see in the world is

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really universal comprehensive sex

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education being offered we are working

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with the federal government

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and members of congress to advance new

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legislation the real education and

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access for healthy youth act that speaks

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directly to those needs i also believe

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that it means that we are doing the

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right thing by talking about sex

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education from this bigger

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goal perspective than just preventing

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teenage pregnancy it's really important

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that we reinforce those good habits that

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the teens are making right now by

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helping them with refusal skills

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self-regulation skills helping them with

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goal setting putting an eye on their

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future personal agency is extremely

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important and we're only there to

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provide the medical facts and to also

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begin to instill some critical thinking