More Editorial

• Commentary: New Mexico Tech's plans have some Socorro residents up in arms
• Trib takes: Feb. 20
• Bouquets & brickbats: Feb. 20

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Albuquerque Old Town
• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

With federal investigators examining its fiscal operations for irregularities and with credible studies challenging its abstinence-only approach to sex education in public schools, Albuquerque's Best Choice program needs to consider a better choice.

The program clearly does not offer the best choice, either in the integrity of its own operations or in the sex-education information that it is transmitting to students in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho schools.

The nonprofit outfit should consider adopting a comprehensive sex-education program that would best serve the needs of students in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and New Mexico, where teen pregnancy remains a far more serious problem than elsewhere in the country.

In any event, federal authorities should not give the organization another dime until it can show unequivocally that it has the internal and personal accounting mechanisms in place to ensure that federal grants will not be misspent.

Albuquerque's Best Choice fired its former director - former Rio Rancho Mayor Kevin Jackson - last May. And it has severed its direct relationship with the New Mexico Family Council - the conservative Rio Rancho-based fundamentalist group originally founded by Jackson. Still, there remain good reasons to question its judgment.

That relationship with the family council - which should have been arm's length at best - was far too cozy for a nonprofit whose operations are largely dependent on a federal grant.

Jackson, who resigned as mayor under fire in July after months of failing to explain away many concerns, remains under investigation for among other things, such as allegedly misusing the city of Rio Rancho's credit card and billing both the city and Albuquerque's Best Choice for the same trip expenses.

Clearly, for an organization bearing such a name, Albuquerque's Best Choice needs to make better choices, particularly in terms of which organizations and individuals it affiliates with. But it also needs to assess its mission and whether it can claim any longer to offer area schools the best choice in sex education.

Certainly Albuquerque's Best Choice needs to be accountable to the taxpayers of the United States, who are helping to pay its bills. But it also would benefit from some truth-testing of its abstinence-only approach.

Abstinence-only programs, like Albuquerque's Best Choice's, have been questioned from the get-go by medical experts, counselors and psychologists who feared they would not provide teenagers with all the information they need in our sexually active society.

A recent study showed that students exposed solely to the abstinence-only message did not abstain from having sex any better than did students who were exposed to a more comprehensive sex-education program that includes information on the use of contraceptives. Students in both groups also had similar experiences in the age at which they began their sexual activity, failed to use contraceptives and had multiple partners.

That was on top of a three-year old Congressional study that catalogued a litany of concerns with abstinence-only programs, including curriculums that:

Contained false information about the effectiveness of contraceptives and the risks of abortion.

Promulgated false scientific information, particularly about the transmission of HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS.

Confused scientific facts with religious beliefs, such as when human life begins and what male and female roles are.

There is not a thing wrong with encouraging children to abstain from sexual activity. But the best choice is to provide them with comprehensive, religiously neutral public sex education and leave the rest to parents and families to undertake.

The best reason for this is because the abstinence-only message isn't working, isn't being presented accurately and is unfairly favoring religious views and sexual stereotypes.

If it is to receive federal funding and the confidence of Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and New Mexico schools, Albuquerque's Best Choice will have to do a lot better.