Birds, Bees, Pregnancy, and STDs Accounting for Variation for State-Level Sex Education

Abstract

Across the United States, curriculum related to sex education differs drastically. A lack of consistent standards amongst the states means that a high schooler in some parts of the country will receive mandatory and medically accurate sex education, but their peers in neighboring states are never required to receive any instruction on these topics at all (Guttmacher Institute, 2020). What causes this profound state-level variation in sex education requirements? In this paper, I hypothesize that religious attitudes, Republican party control, state percentage of rural residents, and state GDP all impact the adoption of sex education policies.
Keywords: sex education, state politics, education policy, morality policy