The Texas Freedom Network says the state is "failing" students and their families by not teaching birth control and disease prevention in schools.
The watchdog group found that more than 80-percent of Texas school districts teach no sex education or only teach abstinence. Many are in rural areas of the state.
“Every one of these kids for the most part is carrying around a computer in their pocket and they can download porn with two clicks of the mouse, so I'm not sure what we think we're protecting them from,” says Dr. David Wiley, a health education professor at Texas State University who conducted research for the study.
“We actually get more money from the federal government than any other state to teach abstinence only, yet the state of Texas turned down two opportunities to apply for federal funding that would have taught about birth control and contraception.”
Wiley says the lack of sex education in Texas has resulted in one of the highest teen birth rates in the nation.
“If we're truly interested in making kids wait until older, the way to do that is to get them full information early and be consistent in delivering that, but we tend to do the opposite,” he says. “We think that if we don't talk about it, then young people aren't going to have sex, but data shows exactly the opposite.”
The group is urging lawmakers to update the state's 13-year-old textbooks and require sex ed in all public schools.