Checking the Facts

About a month ago, Senator McCain's campaign released an attack ad titled "Education" (watch the ad here) which says on the subject that, "Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach sex education to kindergartners."

It seems pretty improbable, and a few days ago on NPR, Steve Inskeep asked McCain about it's accuracy. The Senator answered,

"It's factually correct. It's absolutely factually correct, and you can go on my Web site and you can see the exact language of the bill that Senator Obama sponsored."

When I saw Senator McCain reiterated this again to the editorial board of the Des Moines Register, I decided I'd take a look at what his site has to say.

As it turns, his site doesn't have the exact language of the bill after all, it's just a press release quoting a Fox News story which in turn quotes a National Review reporter.

"...It says curriculum in, quote, 'Any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV,' end quote. The Obama camp maintains the bill was intended to teach kindergarteners only about inappropriate touching, but Byron York, at the National Review after doing some reporting, writes, quote, 'the "touching" provision did not have the prominence that Team Obama has suggested it had, and certainly wasn't the bill's main purpose.'"

So what does the bill, which Senator Obama did not sponsor by the way, only voted for along party lines, say? I looked it up on factcheck.org,

"It's true that the phrase 'comprehensive sex education' appeared in the bill, but little else in McCain's claim is accurate. The ad refers to a bill Obama supported in the Illinois state Senate to update the sex education curriculum and make it 'medically accurate.' It would have lowered the age at which students would begin what the bill termed 'comprehensive sex education' to include kindergarten. But it mandated the instruction be "age-appropriate" for kindergarteners when addressing topics such as sexually transmitted diseases. The bill also would have granted parents the opportunity to remove their children from the class without question:"

The full article includes the specific provision of the bill and a link if you want to read the entire bill yourself, something you won't find on the McCain website.