How quickly and completely they reach their goal is uncertain, however, as conservative supporters of abstinence education lobby Congress and President-elect Barrack Obama to preserve at least some of the funding, which now totals $176 million a year.

And even if federal funding is halted, some states – such as Georgia – are determined to keep abstinence programs going on their own, ensuring that this front in the culture wars will remain active.

Obama is considered an advocate of comprehensive sex education, which – unlike abstinence-only curriculum – includes advice to young people about using contraceptives if they do engage in sexual activity. However, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to elaborate on what the new president would propose in his own budget plan.

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of American, depicted the federal abstinence-only program as “an utter failure that has wasted more than $1.5 billion” over the past decade. Like other critics, she noted that several major studies – including a federally funded review – have found no evidence that the abstinence-only approach works in deterring teen sex. It also has been called dangerous to gay youth.

“Talking with Obama, he totally understands the need for young people to have comprehensive sex education – they need information that protects their health,” Richards said. “I hope that will be the position of the administration, but when Congress gets involved, sometimes things get more complicated.”

Even after Democrats took control of Congress in the 2006 elections, liberals lacked the votes to end abstinence-only funding, and President George Bush stuck by his strong support for it.

But Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said the 2008 elections not only put Obama in the White House but also increased the ranks of senators and representatives who share her opposition to funding abstinence education.

“We believe the amount of money that goes into it would be so much better used on things to prevent unwanted pregnancies,” she said. “I think we’ll have enough votes to deal with it.”

Slaughter is a lead sponsor of the Prevention First Act, introduced this month in the House and Senate, that proposes multiple initiatives to reduce unintended pregnancies. One component calls for promoting “medically accurate” comprehensive sex education.

Supporters of abstinence education acknowledge the shift of political power in Washington, but they have appealed to Obama to preserve some federal funding for their programs.

Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, suggested that one option would be for Congress “to allow true choice” by approving funding for both comprehensive and abstinence-focused programs.

Referring to recent data showing increases in teen births and sexually transmitted diseases among young people, she said, “Now is not the time to remove even one of the tools that can help teens.”

However, Slaughter said she would oppose any effort to fund both approaches.

“We can’t have both, because abstinence-only doesn’t work,” she said.

Among the organizations attempting to bridge the ideological divide on sex education is the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Its director, Sarah Brown, said the campaign’s approach is “science-driven” – favoring comprehensive sex education over the abstinence programs.

“In a highly constrained fiscal environment, it’s critical to focus precious dollars on programs that have evidence of good effects,” Brown said. “When you look at the best science, the abstinence-only programs come up short.”

Still, she said there could be a long-term benefit to conducting research on whatever abstinence programs do endure.

“I suspect that if research community keeps testing them, there might be a couple that do have an effect,” she said.

Georgia supplements its federal abstinence money with more than $500,000 of state funds.

“Abstinence education will remain a strategy of our youth development initiative regardless of what happens at the federal level,” said Jen Bennecke, executive director of the Governor’s Office for Children and Families.

She credited the Georgia program – which includes character-development curriculum – with contributing to a 50 percent decrease in teen pregnancies since its inception 11 years ago.

Roughly half the states receive federal abstinence funding – the others have spurned the program, under which instructors are directed to teach that sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects.

Supporters of abstinence education say it promotes the only method that’s 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Critics say the abstinence programs don’t deter teens from having sex, leave them without crucial information on avoiding pregnancy and STDs, and in some cases provide false information about condoms’ reliability.

Jackson’s opening statement at her Senate confirmation hearing was the clearest signal yet that the Obama administration plans to take the agency in a different direction. The Bush administration at times ignored the advice of scientific experts on decisions ranging from global warming to air pollution.

“Science must be the backbone of what EPA does,” said Jackson. “EPA’s addressing of scientific decisions should reflect the expert judgment of the agency’s career scientists.”

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is also considering the nomination of Nancy Sutley, Obama’s choice to chair the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Sutley also vowed to rely on science as she helped to “move the nation to greater reliance on clean energy and increase energy security.”

Senators are expected to press both candidates for details on how the incoming administration plans to tackle global warming and water pollution. They also could be asked whether they plan to redo Bush administration rules that Senate Democrats say have weakened environmental protections.

Obama has called for legislation to curb the gas emissions blamed for global warming. But it is unclear whether he will pursue a new law first or use existing statutes to more quickly address the problem. He could immediately grant states like California the right to regulate emissions from automobile tailpipes, or trigger controls under the Clean Air Act.

Democrats will want Jackson, the former head of New Jersey’s environmental department, to commit to regulating the disposal of toxic coal ash after two recent spills at power plants in Alabama and Tennessee.

If confirmed, Jackson, 46, would be the first black person to lead the EPA – an agency with 17,000 employees and a $7 billion budget.

Before running the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Jackson worked at the EPA for 16 years. She served under Carol Browner, President Bill Clinton’s EPA chief and Obama’s pick for a new White House position coordinating energy and climate policy.

Sutley, 46, is the deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles. She is the daughter of Argentinean immigrants and is a gay rights activist. She also worked at the EPA during the Clinton administration.

If confirmed, Sutley will coordinate energy and environmental policy from the White House.

(Washington) John Berry is expected to be named the next director of the Office of Personnel Management, an appointment that would make him the highest-ranking openly gay official ever.

The Office of Personnel Management essentially functions as the human resources portal for federal agencies. It also provides the American public with up-to-date employment information.

OPM provides U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.

OPM also has an an investigative branch that last year probed Bush administration Special Counsel Scott Bloch for refusing to protect LGBT workers and allegedly retaliating against whistleblowers in his own office.

Bloch’s stonewalling complaints of discrimination by LGBT federal workers dated to February 2004, when he ordered references to sexual orientation removed from the Office of the Special Counsel website. Since 1998, when President Bill Clinton issued an executive order prohibiting bias in the civil service, the OSC had taken that to include sexual orientation.

A month after the references disappeared from the OSC website, Bloch said gay workers were no longer protected. 

The Obama transition team has not yet named a replacement for Bloch.

Currently, Berry is director of the National Zoo. He is a former executive director of the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and served as assistant secretary of the Interior Department for management.  Berry also served as legislative director for House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) from 1985-1994.

“[This] is a meaningful step forward for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “In his new role, John will make critical decisions regarding the implementation of fair workplace policies for millions of federal workers.”

Other openly gay appointments by the Obama transition team include Nancy Sutley to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Fred P. Hochberg to head the Export-Import Bank.

Sutley is a deputy mayor of Los Angeles. She supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Democratic primary and was a member of her Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender steering committee.

The deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles and the mayor’s representative on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Sutley has a long record of working on environmental and natural resources policy.

She previously served on the California State Water Resources Control Board, which is responsible for protecting water quality and resources throughout the state, and was the energy adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis. During President Bill Clinton’s administration, Sutley was an EPA official, including being a special assistant to the EPA administrator in Washington.

Hochberg is dean of the New School for Management in New York.

From 1998 through 2000, Hochberg served as deputy, then acting administrator, of the Small Business Administration, an agency elevated to cabinet rank by President Bill Clinton, with more than 4,000 employees and 100 offices across the country. 

At the SBA, he directed the delivery of a comprehensive set of financial and business development programs for entrepreneurs, with particular outreach to women and minorities. He also served on President Clinton’s Management Council.

From 1994 to 1998, Hochberg worked as founder and president of Heyday Company, a private investment firm managing real estate, stock market investments, and venture capital projects. Prior to that, he was president and chief operating officer of the Lillian Vernon Corporation, where he led the transformation of a small family mail order company into a publicly traded direct marketing corporation, one of the great success stories of American entrepreneurship.

(Chicago, Illinois) President-elect Barack Obama Tuesday tapped Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan to become secretary of education.

Duncan advised Obama on education issues during the campaign and has run the country’s third-biggest school district for the past seven years.

As CEO of Chicago Public Schools, the 44-year-old has focused on improving struggling schools and closing those that fail – a policy that has sometimes put him at odds with parents and the teachers union.

Obama highlighted Duncan’s approach by choosing a Duncan turnaround story, Dodge Renaissance Academy, as the backdrop for Obama’s formal announcement Tuesday. Duncan closed the perennial test score cellar-dweller 2002 and then reopened it with new staff, an overhauled curriculum and more teacher training. Within years, test scores at the school soared.

Duncan is seen as gay-positive.

This fall he supported an LGBT high school for Chicago. Called the Social Justice High School: Pride Campus, the plan was put on hold last month following opposition from conservatives and concerns by some members of the LGBT community.

The plan is being reworked and is expected to be taken up next year.

Under the original plan, the school was to open in 2010 and eventually serve 600 students, about half of whom were expected to identify as gay. 

Its mission statement said it would serve “the underserved population of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning youth and their allies.”

That has been replaced by one that offers protections for students regardless of “orientation,” but doesn’t mention sexuality. Instead, the Solidarity school aimed to address “citywide concerns over violence, bullying and harassment.”

As opposition to the original plan mounted and concerns were raised by some gay activists that the school would segregate gay young people, Duncan stepped back.

“If we’re going to have a separate high school, let’s put the bullies in the high school, not the (gay) kids,” Rick Garcia, political director for the gay rights group Equality Illinois said last month.

In announcing Duncan’s nomination, Obama called him “the most hands-on of hands-on practitioners.” 

“He’s not beholden to any one ideology, and he’s worked tirelessly to improve teacher quality,” Obama said.

But some Chicago teachers said they were disappointed with Obama’s pick.

“I don’t believe Mr. Duncan’s model is a model for America,” said Deborah Lynch, a teacher at Gage Park High School and a president of the Chicago Teachers Union from 2001-2004.

Lynch criticized Duncan’s strong advocacy for charter schools, which tens of thousands of Chicago students now attend. She accused him of dismantling of the public school system on which so many poor children depend.

Duncan majored in sociology at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude in 1987.

After graduating, Duncan played professional basketball for four years in Australia, where he also worked with children who were wards of the state.

Duncan ran an education nonprofit on Chicago’s South Side before working in Chicago Public Schools under former chief Paul Vallas, now the schools chief in New Orleans.

If he is confirmed by the Senate, Duncan is expected to be less polarizing than Bush secretary Margaret Spellings.

Spellings has promoted abstinence-only education in the nation’s schools, despite concerns that it ignores gay sex issues.

The federal government spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education.

A study mandated by Congress last year found that students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex within a few years as those who did not.

The study, by Mathematica Policy Research, also found that students who attended the abstinence classes reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes, and they first had sex at about the same age as their control group counterparts – 14 years and nine months.

A report a year earlier by the Society of Adolescent Medicine found that abstinence-only education was “unlikely to meet the health needs” of gay students because abstinence-only programs focus heavily on no sex until marriage and ignore homosexuality. This could lead to increased risk of infection among these youngsters, the investigators said.

Sixteen states have declined to take part in the federal program.

In 2005, on her second day on the job, Spellings issued a scathing attack on an episode of the PBS children’s series “Postcards from Buster” for featuring a same-sex couple.

In a letter to  Pat Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of PBS, Spellings issued a veiled threat of funding cuts if the network did not pull the show. 

“Congress’ and the Department’s purpose in funding this programming certainly was not to introduce this kind of subject matter to children, particularly through the powerful and intimate medium of television,” Spellings said in the letter. 

She also suggested that PBS to consider refunding the money it spent on the episode.

The episode was dropped by the network.

With many of his top White House and Cabinet posts filled, Obama now is focusing on fleshing out his natural resources and environment team, and could formally introduce his choices for interior secretary, energy secretary and environmental protection agency chief within weeks if not days.

Two transition officials disclosed Sutley’s selection on the condition of anonymity because Obama had not yet made the announcement.

Sutley supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Democratic primary and was a member of her Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender steering committee.

The deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles and the mayor’s representative on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Sutley has a long record of working on environmental and natural resources policy.

She previously served on the California State Water Resources Control Board, which is responsible for protecting water quality and resources throughout the state, and was the energy adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis. During President Bill Clinton’s administration, Sutley was an EPA official, including being a special assistant to the EPA administrator in Washington.

Obama has chosen much of his Cabinet, with the most prominent positions – treasury, justice, state and defense – already filled, and he is now turning to other posts. He is expected to officially name former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle as his secretary of health and human services as early as this week.

Officials close to Obama’s transition say former New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection commissioner Lisa Jackson and Mary Nichols, who heads the California Air Resources Board, are in the running for the EPA administrator post. Both women worked at the EPA under Clinton EPA chief Carol Browner, who is leading the energy and environmental policy team for Obama’s transition.

Browner, who ran the agency for 8 years, is expected to be named to a new position in the Obama White House overseeing energy, environment and climate matters. But officials say there was still some discussion over whether Browner would share her duties with Sutley or another adviser on energy and environmental matters.

The position of interior secretary is still in flux.

Support for John Berry, the director of the National Zoo and a former assistant secretary at the department, was growing, officials said. Gay and lesbian advocacy groups backing Berry, who is gay, were expected to meet with the transition team in Washington on Wednesday.

But officials said Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva and California Rep. Mike Thompson were still in the running to lead the agency, depending on how other positions shake out.