Over the past year, NCDPI oversaw the revisions of the North Carolina Essential Standards, including those standards that govern sex education. Standards set the goals and directives of what is to be taught in North Carolina schools and are revised only every 10 years. The third and final draft has been issued by NCDPI, and this week the Standards will be up for final approval by the Democrat-controlled State Board of Education for final passage.

The big problem is the current draft of the Standards violates state law.

The long-standing N.C. law, enacted in 1995, requires that any instruction teach abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as an expected standard of behavior. The instruction must teach students how to remain or become abstinent, and the emotional and psychological adverse consequences of engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage.

Draft 3 of the Standards ignores these requirements and, ultimately, will harm our children.