WISCONSIN: Bill Would Rewrite Rules for Public Sex Education

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

WISCONSIN: Bill Would Rewrite Rules for Public Sex Education

Wisconsin State Journal (Madison) (10.26.09) - Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Samara Kalk Derby

On Tuesday, the state Assembly Committee on Education will vote on a bill that would require school districts offering sex education to provide a comprehensive curriculum, including information about contraceptives. The measure specifies the curriculum must be medically accurate and age-appropriate. The bill will be heard in the Senate on Thursday.

If passed, the legislation would restructure K-12 sex education in Wisconsin, update its main topics, and sweep aside abstinence-only policies, say its supporters. Opponents criticize the bill as a heavy-handed mandate and say contraception should not be taught in schools.

Requiring only comprehensive sex education in school districts is "a violation of the principle of local control," said Matt Sande, director of legislation for Pro-Life Wisconsin.

"We're adults. It's our responsibility to teach our youth so that they can have the life that they're going to dream of," said Faustina Bohling, who earlier this month testified in support of the bill. The daughter of a teen mother and a teen mother herself, Bohling, 34, received a "basic course" on sex education as a freshman in East High School.

An estimated 61 percent of Wisconsin school districts teach some form of a comprehensive sex education curriculum, according to the state Department of Public Instruction and CDC.

"This bill is seriously needed in the state," said Chris Taylor, public policy director for Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin. "We are facing a public health crisis with rising teen birth rates for the first time since 1994, and really exploding rates of STDs among teens."
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