Chosen Solution
Excise Tax & Categorical Grant for Improved Sex Education Curriculum
How Does It Work?
The stricter and more specific sex education curriculum in New Jersey can serve as a model for less comprehensive sex education in other states.
School curricula are state-based, so the federal government is unable to control what information is taught to students. Thus, this power lies with the local and district government.
We suggest the implementation of an excise tax could remedy the state of sex education in America. We would instate a 1% tax on alcohol sales (in-store and online), and the collected money would be used in categorical grants. As an incentive, we would offer the taxed money to schools that implement comprehensive sex education.
As further motivation, states would be allowed use a portion of this allotted money for infrastructure repair
Providing funding for states that teach comprehensive sex education would close the gap that allows districts to teach biased interpretations of the state’s requirements.
By specifying the mandated lessons, the probability of misinformation decreases. If all schools across the country are taught the same curriculum, a more cohesive culture will be created in which teenagers are equally educated on sexual health.
The Department of Health and Human Services is going to be responsible for issuing the excise tax on alcohol that will provide our funding for implementation.
New Jersey's Sex Ed Requirements:
New Jersey law, §§ 18A:35-7 and §§ 18A:35-8, mandates at least 150 minutes of health education during each school week in grades 1-12. In addition, high school students must acquire 3.75 credits of health education each year.
State law also requires that all sex education programs and curricula stress abstinence. In addition, “[a]ny instruction concerning the use of contraceptives or prophylactics such as condoms shall also include information on their failure rates for preventing pregnancy, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other [sexually transmitted diseases] (STDs) in actual use among adolescent populations and shall clearly explain the difference between risk reduction through the use of such devices and risk elimination through abstinence.”
In 2018, New Jersey enrolled P.L.2018, c.80, which requires instruction on the “social, emotional, and legal consequences of distributing and soliciting sexually explicit images through electronic means” at least once in middle school as part of the health education curriculum.
In 2019, the legislature enacted a series of bills to advance sex education in New Jersey. §§ 18A:35-4.37 was enrolled, which requires age-appropriate instruction in grades 6-12 on the law and the meaning of consent. §§ 18A:35-4.33 requires instruction on the social, emotional, and legal consequences of distributing and soliciting sexually explicit images once during middle school.
New Jersey allows parents or guardians to remove their children from any part of the health, family life, or sex education classes if it is “in conflict with [their] conscience, or sincerely held moral or religious beliefs.” This is referred to as an “opt-out” policy.”
In 2020, the state of New Jersey added additional sex education requirements for all ages of public schooling. These additional requirements can be seen here.
Why This Solution?
It most effectively communicates proper sex and health education to students while providing necessary education to every student, by doing the following:
Emphasizes consent, STI prevention, and LGBTQ+ identities
Provides equal education to every student
Does not limit schools with lower funding or socioeconomic class
Requires all adolescents (with the exemption of those exempt for religious reasons) to learn comprehensive sex education
Categorical grants from the federal government will encourage states to implement this sex education curriculum.
While each district and county can still design its own standards using these steps, schools around the country will be guided by this baseline curriculum implemented by their states and the funding from the federal government along with it.
Why Not the Other Possible Solutions?
Hiring Professionals:
Mandating schools to hire professionals to teach sex education is not feasible for schools with lower funding. It would force schools to reallocate funding from other subject areas or extracurriculars to sex education curricula, and as important as health and sex education is, prioritizing it over other areas of education is not justifiable.
Providing Outside Resources:
Providing resources to students outside of the classroom places the responsibility of finding this information and educating themselves on each individual student. This would allow for selective ignorance on current issues, such as LGBTQ+ representation and consent education, making it harder to accomplish current goals: decreasing the alarming rate of rape and sexual assault and providing representation and inclusion of identities that go against societal heteronormative ideals.
Is This Solution Constitutional?
The United States Department of Education recognizes, “Education is primarily a State and local responsibility in the United States” (Ed). Education is a power delegated to states, but it is within the federal government's rights to issue categorical funding grants, offering funding for states who implement certain curricula.
Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1 states that "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises" (Constitution).
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. This curriculum actively fights against these types of discrimination through education on LGBTQ+ Identities.
The "Establishment Clause" of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits public schools from imposing religious ideals onto students. There will be an opt-out policy in the curriculum, allowing students who feel this type of education goes against their personal religious beliefs to be exempt from the program. This curriculum also ensures that religious beliefs will not influence students' sex education, such as teaching students to wait until marriage before engaging in sexual activity.
Disadvantages and Rebuttals:
Many conservative states would get push-back from their residents who oppose this type of sex education being implemented in schools
This curriculum has an opt-out policy, allowing parents against the curriculum for religious beliefs or strong morals to opt-out their children.
Teenagers who are themselves uncomfortable with the material can choose to speak with their parents so they do not have to participate
The belief that the federal government should not control education
The federal government, in this proposed solution, would not be enforcing certain curriculum requirements on state governments. There would simply be an increase in education funding to states who adopt these curriculum requirements into their education policies. It encourages states to review and revise their sex education requirements and will allow people to realize how inadequate some states' curriculum requirements are.
Our Home Town Example:
After some much-needed changes, Basking Ridge, a suburban town in New Jersey, serves as our model system for comprehensive sex education. In each grade level, a different topic is covered; by senior year, students can apply their acquired information to real life.
As sex education teacher and curriculum writer Kimberly Clark explains, freshman health is centered around sexuality and gender. She describes how the “vast majority” of freshmen year teaches “the whole spectrum of sexuality” to educate students on the intricacies of identity. Clark breaks down how implementing changes, such as freshmen sexuality lessons, is only possible if “input from the local government” and “the school board” is factored into the curriculum. Anything “[they] show, anything that [they] do in class, and this is across the board, has to be approved by [their] supervisor.”
Clark also touched on the process of amending the curriculum, which schools would do if our standards were implemented. She details that “[they] look at the review and compare it to the state standard, which is what the state tells [them they] have to cover for the curriculum, and make sure that curriculum aligns with the state standards and meets the needs of [the] community”. In addition to adhering to state standards, Basking Ridge's curriculum goes more in-depth on these select topics. Clark also has to deal with time constraints, approximately 6 - 7 weeks, to deliver the curriculum to students: sex ed, first aid, drug and alcohol prevention, and stress management. Just as Clark may go “to a county-wide meeting" in order to "make sure the schools within Somerset county align to the new standards”, other districts will still retain the prerogative to revise and rework their plans.