By Nathan Leaf
Enquirer Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS - Ohio school officials caught up in a fight over sex education have lost up to $2 million in federal cash most other states use to help fund health education programs.

For a decade, Ohio received nearly $1 million each year in federal grants designed to improve the state's health education program. But three years ago, lawmakers barred state officials from taking the money.

The reason? They said the funds, designated for HIV and AIDS prevention and other health programs, required the state to teach sex education without telling students that abstinence is the only way. They argued that giving students information about condoms and other birth-control methods encouraged children to have sex - not to abstain.

Senate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale, has said the decision to turn down the money "drove him up a wall."

Unlike many states, the Ohio Board of Education can no longer adopt curriculum guidelines for health and physical education unless they are first approved by the General Assembly. As a result, Mr. Finan said, "every time a bill comes up, the room is packed with screaming, shouting and sometimes rather vengeful extreme conservatives."

He said Ohio has lost out on programs for nutrition, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other diseases, as well as the opportunity to educate children about the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. The only other state to turn down such funds is Utah.

"I think the state should accept the money," Mr. Finan said. "I think AIDS and HIV education is very valuable. I think (Ohio) should have HIV and AIDS prevention. We should take advantage of everything we can from the federal government."

State Superintendent Susan Zellman had shut down most of the health education programs funded by the grant, which came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dan Good, director of curriculum and assessment for the education department, said the loss of the grant money hasn't had a large effect on health education in Ohio.

"Just because we don't have the grant doesn't mean (Ohio children) aren't getting the health education they need," he said.

Regardless, the state is trying to get a smaller version of the grant that does not include sex education money.

The Ohio Department of Health has applied for $650,000 from the CDC designed to educate kids about nutrition, physical activity and the dangers of tobacco, said department spokesman Jay Carey. The state will continue to turn down $300,000 in HIV and AIDS prevention money.

CDC spokesman Mike Greenwell said the CDC has guidelines for their HIV and AIDS prevention grants, but leaves it up to individual states to have the final say on curriculum.

"If the state decides to never mention condoms, that's their decision," Mr. Greenwell said.

But opponents of accepting the grant money don't buy that argument. They say it would force the state to use teaching methods that encourage kids to have sex at an early age.

Mary Anne Mosack, executive director of Operation Keepsake, a group that teaches abstinence in sex-education programs in 80 schools across Ohio, said she supports the state's decision to continue the ban on any grant money that mandates the use of certain sex education programs.

While these programs stress abstinence, she objects to those that also teach kids how to use condoms.

"The abstinence-first message is really a mixed message. You can't say, `We don't want you to (have sex), but here's how,' " she said. "What is supposed to be preventative becomes provocative."

Kathryn Thompson, education coordinator for AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati, said the loss of funding has resulted in less education for at-risk kids who can't get the information they need about the dangers of sex.

"I think a lot of parents assume their kids are learning more (about sex) than they really are," Ms. Thompson said.