44TH LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - FIRST SESSION, 1999

FOR THE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE AND

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION TO EXAMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ABSENCE OF SEX EDUCATION IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS AND HIGH SCHOOLS AND THE UNACCEPTABLY HIGH TEEN PREGNANCY RATE IN NEW MEXICO.

WHEREAS, New Mexico had the third highest birth rate in the United States for females aged fifteen to seventeen in 1995; and

WHEREAS, teen mothers are less likely to be employed, finish high school or attend college; and

WHEREAS, teen mothers are less likely to be able to obtain quality child care; and

WHEREAS, teen fathers earn two-thirds the income of males who delay parenting until after age twenty; and

WHEREAS, by age twenty-three only sixty-five percent of teen fathers have completed high school or earned a general equivalency diploma; and

WHEREAS, teenage parents are often unaware of the severe social and economic consequences of becoming parents at a young age; and

WHEREAS, age-appropriate courses in sexuality are not required in most school districts beyond sixth grade; and

WHEREAS, when health education is integrated into other courses, current rules do not require instructors to be certified in the health sciences; and

WHEREAS, community assessment surveys in Raton, Socorro, Carlsbad and Santa Fe found that between seventy and ninety-two percent of adults support comprehensive abstinence-based sex education in their schools beginning by the sixth grade; and

WHEREAS, over eighty-one percent of students surveyed by the mayor's youth advisory board in Las Cruces believe teen pregnancy is a problem in Las Cruces; and

WHEREAS, there may be a correlation between what students are taught in school and students' behavior; and

WHEREAS, states with low teen pregnancy rates may offer examples of programs that can reduce the prevalence of teen pregnancies;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the department of health and the state department of public education examine the relationship between the absence of sex education in middle school and high school, and the unacceptably high teen pregnancy rate in New Mexico; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the department of health and the state department of public education.