Assessing Public Policy

Here's a shocker from the LA Times:

Talk about throwing good money after bad. Five years ago, Congress appropriated $250 million to teach teenagers about sex. But the money could be spent only to teach them to say no. A study released last week found that this federal gag rule on realistic sex education may be doing nothing to cut teenage pregnancies.

The shocker isn't that the liberal paper dislikes the program (I'm not so sure that I like the program), but that they have actually argued against funding a program based on empirical results. That's a big step for liberals, who have long been in favor of throwing more and more good money after bad in all sorts of policy areas. Education and welfare come to mind immediately.

It's nice to know that the LA Times will be out in front advocating the elimination of wasteful government programs based on evidence like falling test scores and such.

Okay, it would be nice, if we lived in a consistent and rational world and the LA Times were either of those. But we know better than that, don't we?

[Posted at 20:54 CST on 04/30/02] [Link]