Will They or Won't They Spend it All?

With a current Rainy Day Fund balance of almost $600 million in state reserves, Gov. Brad Henry proposes to spend almost all of it -- $553 million -- to fund state government operations. In contrast, Republican leaders, including Speaker Chris Benge and Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee, would like to appropriate no more than 3/8 of the balance -- some $234 million, in case the current recession in state revenues continues for another two to three years. Of course, Gov. Henry won't be in office beyond January, 2011, so a lack of state money in future years will not be his problem; he understandably wants to fund the operations of state government well during his watch. But, it seems prudent to OFPC for state leaders to make the hard, necessary cuts today and save as much as possible in the Rainy Day account for any future lean years the state may yet have to endure.

For more on the emerging Rainy Day fund situation, read Patrick B. McGuigan's excellent report at CaptiolBeatOK by clicking here.

Univ. of Penn Study Reports Effectiveness of Abstinence-Only Education

You may have seen news reports this week about a new University of Pennsylvania study, published in the February, 2010, issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The study by John Jemmott, III, Ph.D. and two other colleagues shows what absinence proponents already know: abstinence-only programs for youth work better to prevent or delay sexual activity than other alternatives. Here's an overview:

Six hundred sixty-two urban African-American kids, both boys and girls, with an average age of 12.2 years, were part of a randomized controlled trial. Some kids received eight hours of character-based, abstinence-only instruction, similar to what is presented in OFPC's KEEP Program. Other children got eight hours of safer sex/condom use instruction. Still others got eight to 12 hours of a comprehensive sex education (CSE) program. Finally, other youth received eight hours of instruction in just a general health promotion course, which did not mention sexuality or contraception at all.

Two years later, only one-third of students who had received the abstinence-only course self-reported having had sexual intercouse, compared with about half of the control group. According to researchers, abstinence-only worked well with these inner-city kids! The other kids that got comprehensive sex ed instruction had just as much sex as the control group; CSE showed no effectiveness to prevent or delay sexual intercourse, although CSE did reduce students' self-reports of having multiple sexual partners.

Here's the significance: the Penn study shows early intervention is important and effective among urban youth to decrease sexual intercourse, STDs, HIV, and pregnancies, and for a long period, in this case two years, following the intervention.