The "second tier" grantees did not attain the 80 out of 115 points required for full funding. CRE/WAIT's scoring was the lowest, at only 54 points. Despite this, CRE/WAIT was given the opportunity to revise its application, incorporating improvement recommendations from the CDE to receive partial funding. CRE/WAIT received its first payment in May of this year — the first installment of its $233,500-per year grant.
Littleton-based Friends First Inc. scored only 70 points and was also allowed to revise its application. Ultimately, it was awarded $233,400 per year for a three-year period.
When he was still the Colorado Commissioner of Education, Dwight Jones abruptly changed course on the federal anti-abstinence funds.
Although then-Governor Bill Ritter turned down the anti-abstinence funds, Colorado Board of Education member Peggy Littleton decided to go after them.
Details
Related Content
More About
According to state filings, Lisa Rue founded Friends First in the early 1990s as the Colorado Coalition for Abstinence Education, Inc. She co-authored the WAIT Training curriculum with Mackenzie.
In a February e-mail to the Colorado Board of Education, current Colorado Department of Education Commissioner Robert Hammond said that CRE/WAIT and Friends First Inc. were able to receive funding despite their low scores because Pueblo City and Center Consolidated requested so little money.
Healthy Colorado Youth Alliance — which focused on abstinence plus comprehensive sex education — wasn't given a chance to rewrite its application. Although the group declined to comment on being turned down for the Title V funds, it sent a statement: "We urge Colorado parents and community members to investigate the curricula being used in their schools and to demand that students have access to complete information about sexual health that is medically accurate, culturally relevant and inclusive of all youth, free of fear- and shame-based teaching strategies, and that has been proven to help youth delay the early onset of sexual activity and practice safe sex if they do have sex."
The CDE gave CRE/WAIT feedback on how to improve its application, listing its "strengths" and "weaknesses." The CDE asked CRE/WAIT to revamp its application to address high salary costs for program administration, duplicative and excessive costs for video production, high evaluation costs, excessive printing costs, insufficient matching fund resources and a do-over of its video production focus.
The CDE's assessment of CRE/WAIT's strengths was much shorter: "1. Focused on abstinence education, 2. Plan designed to reach a large number of students, 3. Strong letters of support."
Among the many letters of support, a few stand out.
Amy Stephens talked of her years working with Mackenzie and how she has been impressed with Mackenzie's passion and dedication. "Majority Leader Stephens supports the goals of the WAIT Training program and the Center for Relationship Education, and wrote a letter of support as she does with other worthy projects applying for state or federal grant funds," her office explains. "Relationship education skills benefit all youth regardless of sex, race or sexual orientation."
Congressman Mike Coffman's letter related his glowing experience with Mackenzie and her efforts to combat teen pregnancy and poverty during his time as Colorado Secretary of State. And Peggy Littleton, in her new role as El Paso County Commissioner, also submitted a strong letter of support.
******
A 2007 Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) report studying the impact of abstinence-only programming in schools on LGBT kids found that "a significantly greater portion of students in schools that used an abstinence-only curriculum reported feeling unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation and gender expression—64.8% of these students felt unsafe because of their sexual orientation compared to 57.3% of all other students."
The report also noted that "LGBT students in schools that used abstinence-only sex-education curricula also reported experiencing higher levels of victimization related to their sexual orientation and gender expression than other students."
Perhaps as a result, the 2010 U.S. Title V grant circular — the document from the Administration for Children and Families division of the federal Department of Health and Human Services that guides grantees on proper use of Title V funds — included this language: "ACF also encourages them [Title V recipients] to consider the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth and how their programs will be inclusive of and non- stigmatizing toward such participants."
This language "is part of the actual grant," Colsman says. "The majority of the language in our RFP came almost verbatim from the federal program. We pulled directly from there."
The Colorado RFP includes a list of eleven assurances an organization must agree to before it can receive federal money. Number five on that list: "The applicant will not discriminate against anyone regarding race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, color, disability, or age."
"Obviously, abstinence-only programs ignore the needs of LGBT youth," says Emily Greytak, senior research associate at GLSEN. "They are disenfranchised, their existence is ignored, and it clearly doesn't provide them any information on their sexuality.
"LGBT kids feel more alienated by abstinence-only," she adds. "They are essentially being told their future relationships are not valuable."
In WAIT Training's Title V application, Mackenzie addresses the RFP mandate for inclusivity of LGBTQ students this way: "The American Psychological Association Gay and Lesbian Issues Team have vetted the WAIT Training Curriculum for inclusive language and appropriate activities that include all students...only data driven curricula that is inclusive and not stigmatizing to this population will be utilized in this effort."