{"id":2181,"date":"2004-07-22T10:21:04","date_gmt":"2004-07-22T15:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2181.html"},"modified":"2004-07-22T10:21:04","modified_gmt":"2004-07-22T15:21:04","slug":"in-texas-you-can-stop-stds-by-getting-plenty-of-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/in-texas-you-can-stop-stds-by-getting-plenty-of-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"In Texas, you can stop STDs by getting plenty of rest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mind-numbingly painful fights over textbooks has become contentious nationwide, but there’s something unique over the lunacy in Texas. High-profile fights over biology<\/a> texts have been going on for years, as have debates over ecology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while the fight over sex-ed in Texas is also not out of the blue, it is deeply twisted. A Carpetbagger regular, whom I fondly call Dr. Who, forwarded me an MSNBC report<\/a>, for example, that emphasizes just how ridiculous some of the proposed textbooks are.<\/p>\n

Of the four state high school health textbooks under consideration in Texas this summer, one says teenagers should “get plenty of rest” if they want to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. It also suggests students can help prevent pregnancies by respecting themselves. The book avoids any discussion of condoms.<\/p>\n

Abstinence is the preferred practice in two more submitted textbooks, which only vaguely refer to “barrier protection,” but never explain exactly what that term means.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wish I was making this stuff up. “Plenty of rest” can stop STDs? I wonder if Texas officials would recommend this approach to helping stop the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa?<\/p>\n

And before you think this is just a shame for those poor students in Texas who will obviously be receiving a dangerously second-rate education, please remember that this is likely to have a national impact.<\/p>\n

A final decision on the next textbooks — for the 2005-2006 academic year — will be made in the fall. It will be watched closely by educators as well as by the multibillion dollar textbook publishing industry.<\/p>\n

Behind California, Texas is the second-leading textbook buyer in the country; and combined with Florida the three states make up more than 30 percent of the country’s $4 billion-a-year market.<\/p>\n

The State Board’s decision will help determine what publishers nationwide include in textbooks marketed in other states.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nPutting national implications aside for a moment, it’s worth noting that of all the states that need improved lessons on sexual health, Texas is already in dire straights. The state seems intent on making things worse.<\/p>\n

Texas leads the nation in teenage pregnancies and opponents of the new textbooks that encourage abstinence while ignoring any discussion of safe sex are unrealistic and will leave students at a dangerous disadvantage.<\/p>\n

“Texas has the nation’s highest teen birth rate among girls age 15 to 17, and nearly half of all new sexually transmitted disease infections occur among people age 15 to 24,” Dan Quinn, a spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network told the Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n

“The new high school health textbooks the state Board of Education is considering fail to include complete and medically accurate information on sex education,” said Quinn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The State Board of Education will hold a public hearing on the textbooks in Austin on Sept. 8 before the final vote. If the board approves them, they will be ready to hit the desks of Texas students by following school year.<\/p>\n

I’ll let you know what happens, but there’s absolutely no reason to be optimistic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mind-numbingly painful fights over textbooks has become contentious nationwide, but there’s something unique over the lunacy in Texas. High-profile fights over biology texts have been going on for years, as have debates over ecology. And while the fight over sex-ed in Texas is also not out of the blue, it is deeply twisted. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}