Music or Morals

The education system in America is messed up, to say the least. Important programs are getting cut from school curriculums left and right. Why? Because the schools can't afford them, because they aren't getting enough funding.

After-school activities, which keep kids off the streets and out of trouble, are being cut at alarming rates, especially in areas that need them the most. Other schools make kids pay $100 if they want to participate in after-school programs.

We wonder why obesity rates are climbing when physical education classes are being reduced. At my high school we only had gym for one semester a year, for two years.

We lament the lack of appreciation for the arts, when arts programs are being cut from schools due to lack of funding.

Kids are being denied sufficient life skills (or home economics) classes; classes that teach them how to cook, sew, do laundry, and manage household finances. These are skills everyone needs to know, but these days rarely learn unless their parents take the time to teach them.

Every year, Congress spends billions of tax dollars on school-related funding. If that's the case, where is all this money going? These billions of dollars aren't going towards music, art, gym, after-school activities, or home economics. Instead, they are spent as incentives for states to teach abstinence-only sexual education in their public schools.

We're not talking about abstinence-based education, which emphasizes abstinence as the best way to prevent STDs and unwanted pregnancy.

Abstinence-only education doesn't mention birth control methods, unless it's to convince kids that these methods don't work. Kids are told that condoms are only 20% effective in preventing pregnancy, and 0% effective in preventing HIV and AIDS. Kids are told that the best way to avoid HIV and AIDS is to avoid homosexual behaviors. I shit you not. Kids are told that birth control causes cancer and aborts babies, that abortion causes infertility.

These lies and scare tactics have been proven ineffective. They hardly have any effect on premarital sex rates, and they only increase the rates of teen pregnant and the spread of STDs. These programs are hurting our children, and their fueled by our tax dollars.

It's time for a redistribution of funding. Congress needs to stop spending that money on harmful programs. Instead, that money should go towards putting music, art, gym, and life skills back in the classroom, improving academics, and restoring after-school activities.