More students on track to graduate, By Jeremy P. Meyer, February 4, 2010, Denver Post: “Denver school officials can barely contain their excitement over recent high school data showing hundreds more students enrolled, taking tougher college-prep courses and on track to graduate. ‘This is among the most positive data we have seen in the last three or four years,’ said Superintendent Tom Boasberg, who took over the leadership of Denver Public Schools one year ago. ‘This is work. A lot of really good work is going on.’ And Denver has company. Across Colorado, 4.8 percent more 12th-graders are enrolled in the 2009-10 school year than the previous school year…”
Day: February 4, 2010
Abstinence-only Education
- Abstinence-only programs might work, study says, By Rob Stein, February 2, 2010, Washington Post: “Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity, researchers reported Monday in a landmark study that could have major implications for U.S. efforts to protect young people against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Only about a third of sixth- and seventh-graders who completed an abstinence-focused program started having sex within the next two years, researchers found. Nearly half of the students who attended other classes, including ones that combined information about abstinence and contraception, became sexually active. The findings are the first clear evidence that an abstinence program could work…”
- Quick response to study of abstinence education, By Tamar Lewin, February 2, 2010, New York Times: “A study of middle-school students that found for the first time that abstinence-only education helped to delay their sexual initiation is already beginning to shake up the longstanding debate over how best to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. ‘This is a rigorous study that means we can now say that it’s possible for an abstinence-only intervention to be effective,’ Dr. John B. Jemmott III, the University of Pennsylvania professor who led the study, said Tuesday, hours after results of the study were released. ‘That’s important, because for some populations, abstinence is the only acceptable message…'”
Medicaid Reform – Florida
Jeb Bush’s Medicaid plan faces uncertain fate, By Marc Caputo, February 3, 2010, Miami Herald: “Costs are down. Patients appear to be satisfied. Doctors are practicing more preventive care. Despite these encouraging signs, former Gov. Jeb Bush’s ‘Medicaid Reform’ experiment looks like it won’t expand statewide beyond Broward County and four Jacksonville-area counties as he had hoped. The HMO industry doesn’t like parts of the plan. Liberals say the program hasn’t been properly studied. And Republican legislators are concentrating on solutions of their own to control growing costs of the program. But not all the ideas behind Medicaid Reform — such as expanding managed care, providing hospitals more money or trying to provide more patient choice — are dead…”