Dummheit in Utah

Ankita Rao, yet again, has an article in Slate about Utah and stupidity:

What’s more conservative than abstinence-only education? Utah may soon find out, now that lawmakers signed off on a bill this week that bans public schools from teaching students about contraception, human sexuality, and homosexuality altogether.
The Chicago Tribune reports that, if Republican Governor Gary Herbert gives the proposal a final green light, as he is expected to, the state’s public schools will have the option of either dropping their sex-ed programs altogether, or limiting such classes to only materials that encourage abstinence before marriage. Instructors would not be allowed to talk about condoms or birth control methods as a way of preventing pregnancy or STDs.
Currently, Utah public schools offer sex-ed, with some restrictions, as an elective that parents decide whether their child can take.
The new proposal would be the most restrictive sex-ed policy in the United States, according to the Tribune. Currently, 37 states require abstinence to be part of the curriculum; 26 of them require that it is emphasized as the only clear-cut way to prevent pregnancy or STDs.
Conservative lawmakers behind the bill argue that sexual education is better left to parents at home. "To replace the parent in the school setting, among people who we have no idea what their morals are, we have no ideas what their values are, yet we turn our children over to them to instruct them in the most sensitive sexual activities in their lives, I think is wrongheaded," Republican state Senator Stuart Reid explained in the Salt Lake Tribune.
US Education Secretary Arne Duncan has confirmed that the state is in charge of its own academic standards, but he has not said whether he would urge Utah to reconsider a move that goes against federal suggestions.

Rico says Utah and stupidity may be redundant... (Like their kids aren't gonna have unsafe sex; you can read about how well they're doing now here, but the highlights are these: one-third of Utah high school students reported that they were non-virgins in 1988, regional and national data from 1993 show that about one-half of high school students are non-virgins and over 33% regularly engage in sex, and rates of some sexually transmitted diseases have more than doubled in the Utah teen population between 1988 and 1992.)

Rico says that Tony Billmeyer wrote in and wanted to add this: