Gov. Jim Doyle has rejected about $600,000 in federal abstinence money rather than comply with new rules banning comprehensive sex education. Stephanie Marquis of the Department of Health and Family Services said the governor has directed her to notify federal officials of his decision. Programs that accept the funds cannot provide complete information about contraception or STDs, Marquis said. Wisconsin becomes the fifth state to reject the Title V abstinence-only funds for fiscal year 2007.

Another dozen states are considering refusing the funds, said Bill Smith, vice president for public policy at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. "It seems to me there is some sanity returning to the notion that sexuality education is about public health and not about hyper-moralism and ideology," he said.

According to Marquis, Wisconsin has received about $600,000 in federal abstinence money annually since 1997. Other federal grant sources provide some $3 million in abstinence money annually to community groups in the state; Doyle's decision has no effect on their funding.

The groups that would have shared the Title V money this year were the Milwaukee-based Center for Self-Sufficiency, the Menomonee tribe, and Oneida Wise Woman Gathering Place. Milwaukee Public Schools receive money through the Center for Self-Sufficiency and thus would have been prohibited from teaching comprehensive sex education, the type of sex education recommended by the state Department of Public Instruction.

Marquis said new federal rules have removed Title V funding recipients' discretion to develop their own instructional programs.