Click to watch video

It may be the most controversial lesson public school students are ever taught: sex education.

The state of Texas requires districts to let parents opt their children out of sex ed, allowing their kids to skip the classes by writing a note.

Now, Pampa Republican Warren Chisum has written a bill to reverse the law and require parents to “opt in,” meaning students would hear nothing of sex ed unless their parents expressly tell the district they’d like their children to be included.

“Some parents never know their child was even involved in a sex ed program because they never got told,” Rep. Chisum. “What we’re doing is saying okay, everybody gets told. And everybody has to make that decision whether they want their child in sex education or not.”

A spokesman for HISD said the district does not track how many parents have chosen to remove their children from sex education, and the district won’t speculate on the effect a bill like this might have.

But opponents call it a thinly veiled attempt to erode the limited amount of sex ed being taught in Texas.

“It would frustrate teachers very much,” Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Meryl Cohen said.

Cohen of Houston Planned Parenthood says making parents sign something first - would mean the children who need sex ed the most, probably wouldn’t get it.

“It’s a barrier for young people to get this note home and signed and back to the school,” Cohen said. “We know that notes don’t come back.”

Cohen’s worried the state with the highest teen birth rate in the country is about to slide even further backwards. But Rep. Chisum said it’s a proactive way to include parents in an important part of their child’s education.

Rep. Chisum as the man who wrote the state constitutional amendment that defined marriage as being between one man and one woman.

His bill is one of 660 that have been filed so far — still two days before the start of the 2007 legislative session.