Now that Barack Obama has been sworn in as president, a lot of questions have been raised about what sort of decisions he will make during his presidency.

One topic which has been brought up in a recent Time article deals with the issue of abstinence-only sex education programs versus comprehensive sex education programs.

During his time in office, George Bush supported abstinence-only sex education programs.

According to a recent Time article, a total of $176 million per year has been spent funding such programs around the country.

But many people consider President Obama to be an advocate of comprehensive sex education, which, according to Advocates For Youth, still teaches that abstinence is the most effective way to prevent unintentional pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, but also offers information about using contraceptives if one should choose to engage in sexual activity.

For a lot of supporters of abstinence-only sex education, religion plays a key role, creating thick dividing lines in the debate between both sides of the argument.

On its Web site, however, Advocates for Youth explains that comprehensive sex education “teaches that religious values can play an important role in an individual’s decisions about sexual expression.”

As President Obama works through his first few days in office, many wonder if he will in fact cut federal funding for existing abstinence-only sex education programs around the country, and instead promote new programs that teach comprehensive sex education.

According to the Time article, currently about half of the states receive federal funding for abstinence-only sex education programs, some with no plans of eliminating the programs regardless of whether the federal funding continues into President Obama’s time in office.

The Editorial Board supports the idea of teaching comprehensive sex education programs over abstinence-only sex education programs.

We feel comprehensive sex education programs are more open-minded, more realistic and better support the ideals of the majority of Americans today.

That being said, we think that it’s important for sex education programs to not have to be switched back and forth between presidents each time a new one is elected, as it is an inconsistent and thus ineffective way of informing young people, and hope the new administration will address this issue in search of a solution that can be supported by the majority of today’s Americans.