Sex Ed Bill Passes

The sex ed bill (mandating that sex ed be medically accurate and that abstinence cannot be taught at the exclusion of contraception) passed the House tonight, 63-34. It passed the Senate earlier this session 30-19. Onto Governor Gregoire.

I’d like to be thrilled about the news, but given that the bill has passed the House for several years running now (while traditionally stalling in the Senate), I actually thought it had already passed the House earlier this year. Some reporter I am.

Anyway. Three cheers !!!

Meanwhile: Rocky Horror Picture Show, people. That was my high school sex ed bill. (Hey, Allison.)

Sorry for the drunk post. A happy press release from NARAL, which has supported this bill for years, is linked below.

Washington State House Approves Healthy Youth Act:
Bill Headed to Governor’s Desk

OLYMPIA, WA – The Washington State House passed the Healthy Youth Act (ESSB 5297) today by a vote of 63 – 34. The bill had been approved in the State Senate with a vote of 30 – 19 on March 7th.

The Healthy Youth Act is quality assurance for sex education in public schools. The bill requires that school districts that choose to teach sex education provide medically accurate and comprehensive information. Anti-choice Representatives Ahern, Anderson, Bailey, Buri, Curtis, Dunn, Haler, Hinkle, McCune, McDonald, Newhouse, Roach, Ross, Schindler, Strow, Sump, and Warnick offered 33 amendments attempting to undermine the bill, all of which were defeated.

“After five years of work on this important issue, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is very pleased that the Legislature has finally acted to protect the health of Washington teens by approving the Healthy Youth Act,” said Karen Cooper, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.

“Teens need reliable information regarding contraception and sexual health in order to make good decisions throughout their lives,” said Cooper. “I am amazed that giving teens accurate, complete health information is still controversial in 2007, but clearly it is for some legislators,” Cooper added, referring to the four hours of debate prior to final passage of the bill.

“A 2004 statewide survey demonstrated that 78% of Washington parents think we should be teaching ninth and tenth graders about contraception, birth control, and condoms, yet we know that many Washington schools only provide inaccurate abstinence-only programs,” Cooper said. “The need for this legislation is clear and we look forward to Governor Gregoire signing The Healthy Youth Act it into law.”

Comments

Wowee, dang nice info ya got there. You got balls and singin in drag for the Gong Show? Naaaah, thos numbers do have some of that screwy melodrama. How bout singin that e. costello song Allison?

"Alliiiisonnn, my aim is pure bullshit."

I hapy Washington Stewdant have choise sex edukatsion. I live Stuttgart Germany their much fredom heer for sex stuff. If peeple have desire why not sex even ifnot marrie. It healthie. Reegardng of Rocky horrer Pictchure show What nise movie. Brad and Janit they nise coupel. they endulge sex afair outside reelatsionship it nise way disscovar true selfe. It same for peepel evrywear. By way, I disscovar cornnuts grate afrodeeshiak. I eat whole pakage befour go out.

You go, Josh!

That was a great article on Frank Chopp in this weeks's issue. It hurts my head to ponder this, but it's possible Frank's style of political deal-brokering is better for progressives in the long run.

That said, I think his viaduct stance was a serious blunder no matter how you look at it. Hopefully he's gotten the message.

Josh

Glad to see you admit your reporting is so sloppy. I read your attack ad on Frank Chopp this morning. Did you write that piece drunk as well?

If I performed my job as inaccurately as you perform yours, I’d be fired.

Misreporting medically accurate sex ed is not your only mistake in the piece. Might want to do some more homework.

So you knife the Speaker in the back without any mention of his long-term commitment to progressives and progressive politics and then you don't even know where the sex ed bill is in the legislative process?

But for the Speaker, I wonder where we would be. Its hard to believe, but less than 10 years ago Democrats were in the minority in the House. Now they have super majority. A super majority that they have used to give health care to kids, pass a landmark Puget Sound bill, pass domestic partnership legislation, pass medically accurate sex education, pass more stringent laws regarding credit report usage in employment screening, pass landmark education legislation including legislation that would make it easier for low income people and single mothers to go to college, pass legislation which would make inroads into alleviating the affordable housing crisis in the state, and put together a budget that was better for families than what the Governor or the Senate could cobble together. And this is what I can think of right now that has happened this session.

Sure you are always going to have organizations like SEIU complain but if you look at the budgets 29 million for nursing home rates is pretty great. How many millions of dollars would it take for SEIU to not sucker punch their Democratic friends?

The gun show loophole bill didn't pass either, but gun control legislation was very much alive until gun control advocates rejected legislative alternatives that probably would have had more of an impact on crime.

The Speaker has astoundingly good political and policy instincts. Unlike many who sit in the majority today, the Speaker was elected and served in the minority. He knows what its like to be without power. He knows how to fight and get what he wants. He is the only person that can keep the misfits in the House together. As much as it would be great for the Speaker to pull rank and force his agenda on his entire caucus that is just not possible. He has to pick his battles and I am happy with the battles he has picked - even standing firm against the Mayor's pricey SR99 tunnel.

@5,
If Chopp was so "firm" against the pricey tunnel, how do you feel about the sketchy, expensive 520 plan they signed off on?

Meanwhile, you write: "So you knife the Speaker in the back without any mention of his long-term commitment to progressives and progressive politics..."

Without any mention of commitment to progressives? Here are three passages from my story:

First elected to the state house from Seattle's 43rd District in 1994, Chopp, who likes to refer to himself as a "Bremerton Democrat"—meaning a beer-drinking, blue-collar, populist 26th District Democrat, as opposed to an effete, latte-sipping, pot-smoking 43rd District Democrat—has a bold record as a progressive legislator and Speaker. He's passed the estate tax, collective bargaining for state employees, a housing trust fund, the highest minimum wage in the country, and opportunity grants for college tuition, and quadrupled farm-worker-housing funding, among other achievements.

"If you have any question about his commitment to social justice," says Representative Chase, who recalls first meeting Chopp, a UW grad, in the mid 1970s when he was organizing a campaign in Bremerton to revoke the licenses of social clubs that didn't admit blacks, "just go down and stand in the lobby of the Fremont Public Association and see all the work they do, the food banks. His social-justice roots are deep. But he brings that down here and he runs into a problem of balancing competing interests among members."

Chopp and the Democrats have done some heavy lifting this session. The biggest victory—one for which Chopp rightly gets most of the credit—is the children's health-care bill which requires the Department of Social and Health Services to provide health-insurance coverage for children in families with household incomes of up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.
Other progressive victories include passing the accurate sex-ed bill, funding all-day kindergarten, millions for school construction, and a consumer protection bill for insurance claims. Meanwhile, a longtime Democratic priority to lower the threshold for local school levies to a simple majority and a bill that forces employers to reimburse the state if its employees are on the state's Medicaid or Basic Health plan passed in Chopp's state house and were pending in the state senate at press time.

Legislators also passed a domestic-partnerships bill this year, and our state's gay legislators say Chopp was "rock solid" on it.

Chopp has also been rock solid against the proposed $500 million Sonics subsidy, denouncing it as a misguided use of public money. And on that issue, as opposed to the elevated rebuild, he's with 74 percent of Seattle voters.

News Sex Ed Bill Passes Posted by Josh Feit on April 11 at 21:27 PM

Comments

News Sex Ed Bill Passes
Posted by Josh Feit on April 11 at 21:27 PM