Florida turns down fed. funding for comprehensive sex ed

The Florida Independent reports:

The state Legislature turned away $2.8 million in annual funding from the federal government for comprehensive sex education in Florida.
According to a spokesperson from the Florida Department of Health, funding for the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) “has been declined by DOH because we were not granted Legislative Budget Authority to move forward with the project.”
The funding was allocated by the Affordable Care Act.
According to information provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “the purpose of [the] program is to educate youth between the ages of 10 and 19 on both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.”

Unlike a number of abstinence-only education programs in the state, the PREP grant would have gone to educate students on contraception and STD preventation.
This year, the state Legislature did approve money from the Affordable Care Act for almost $2 million dollars in awards for abstinence-only sex education groups in the state. These programs have been shown to place a very limited emphasis on health specifics.