Lawmakers debate teaching sex ed in Bible Belt

Legislators are debating whether teachers should talk about sex, in a comprehensive way, in Mississippi classrooms.

Sex education has emerged as a topic during the first weeks of the legislative session after a recent federal report said Mississippi has the nation’s highest teen birth rate. Mississippi’s rate was more than 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006, according to new state statistics released earlier this month from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sexually transmitted diseases also are on the rise in the state, and experts say Mississippi’s perpetual poverty is tied to the number of teenage, single parents.

State law doesn’t require sex education in public schools and Sen. David Jordan, of Greenwood, is sponsoring a bill to create a sex education pilot program.