Mary Loftin Grimes

In the following viewpoint, Mary Loftin Grimes argues that comprehensive sex education is among the reforms needed to end the cycle of poor teenagers having children. She also maintains that teenagers who have become parents should have access to child care, job training, and other programs that will keep them off welfare. The United States should not be a nation that traps children and young parents in poverty, Grimes asserts. Grimes is a professor of education at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What proportion of nonwhite live births in the author's state were to females between the ages of ten and fourteen?
2. What social conditions do liberal advocates believe cause early pregnancy, according to Grimes?
3. According to the author, what is the...