HOUSTON -- By the time kids graduate high school, they’ve learned about math, science and literature … But what about sex?

“There was never a class that really addressed that,” Jasper Axelrad, a Spring ISD graduate, said.

“They glossed over contraceptives,” Zaid Razvi, a Fort Bend ISD graduate, said.

Carlos Blanco said he was appalled at how little was being taught.

So he became a student volunteer at Houston’s Planned Parenthood, passing out sex ed pamphlets and condoms.

“I have stories of friends who were just like, ‘I got Chlamydia the third time I had sex because I had no idea what Chlamydia was or what a condom was,’“ Blanco said.

The kids 11 News talked with were from a variety of area school districts, some of which use state-approved abstinence-only sex ed.

Texas spends more on abstinence-only sex ed than any other state.

Public schools in Texas are not required to teach sex ed, but if they do, they must concentrate the most time emphasizing that not having sex is the only 100-percent guarantee against pregnancy and infections.

Teachers can’t hand out condoms in class, and any discussion about them must point out their failure rate.

The state law has been in place for over a decade.

But did Texas get it wrong?

There is increasing evidence that abstinence-only programs aren’t working, despite the millions of dollars poured into them.

What’s more, Texas continues to have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country.

Research funded by the state and confirmed by national studies found Texas kids who were taught abstinence didn’t postpone having sex more than others.

“It’s not that the abstinence-only approach is wrong. What’s wrong is to not fund effective programs,” Susan Tortolero of the UT Health Science Center Houston said.

But if abstinence-only education is not effective, what would be?

A team of scientists at the UT Heath Science Center have developed an animated computer game they hope will help teach kids about sex.

It’s been tested in classrooms at several HISD middle schools.

“It was carefully constructed. We worked with parents and children,” Tortolero said.

The game consists of 12 lessons, each 45 minutes long, that teach kids how to say no, but also how to use contraceptives.

Tortolero said it works. She said it delayed sexual risk-taking in kids by about a third.

This fall, the program will be introduced in 30 HISD middle schools.

“This should be part of every school’s curriculum, because it impacts academic performance,” Tortolero said.

Dr. Gordon Crofoot, a Houston doctor who specializes in STDs, echoed the thought that teen sex isn’t just a health issue.

He testified in Austin years ago against the state’s abstinence-only approach.

“It was a wrong decision then, and now we’re paying for it in dollars,” Dr. Crofoot said.

He figures caring for pregnant or infected teens costs the state’s health care system hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

He said that’s just one more reason Texas must find a better way to teach kids about sex.