Arizona health officials said Friday that they plan to seek more than $1 million in federal grant money for abstinence-only education in schools - a reversal from one year ago when then-Gov. Janet Napolitano rejected the funds, saying such programs don't work.

In choosing to pursue the grant, the state said teen pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among youth are "urgent public-health issues" and the programs are too important to drop.

"Gov. (Jan) Brewer believes in abstinence education," spokesman Paul Senseman said Friday. "She believes these are very effective programs. . . . And with over a million dollars available, she felt this was a good opportunity."

The revenue stream provides sexual education for more than 20,000 of Arizona's middle- and high-school-age students each year, officials said.

But while the decision to apply for the funds emphasizes the ideological differences between Brewer and her predecessor, it's unlikely the move will have a big impact on what's taught in the classroom - for several reasons.

First, there is speculation that President Barack Obama and the Democratic-led Congress might not reauthorize the grant program, which was highly touted under former President George W. Bush.

Under the program, the state contracts with outside providers responsible for designing the curriculum. No money actually goes to the schools, and many of the contractors, which include Catholic Charities and the Arizona Youth Partnership, are non-profits eligible for multiple grants through a variety of government programs.

Second, Arizona law is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Existing statutes require public schools to teach abstinence as part of their sexual-education curriculum, but they also leave the door wide open for comprehensive sex education, which includes information about condoms and other forms of contraception.

Individual districts choose how to structure their programs.

The Phoenix Union High School District, for example, offers both approaches, spokesman Craig Pletenik said.

"Compared to some, we may be a bit more progressive," he said. "But with the population we serve, we believe it's our obligation to give the kids all the information we can. We bring in all different sides of the issue."

At the federal level, the reauthorization of the grant program is expected to cause political wrangling, particularly in light of a 2007 report that cast doubt on the effectiveness of abstinence-only education.

New data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention show the teen-birth rate has risen the past two consecutive years. It had previously declined for 14 straight years.

In Arizona, there are varying viewpoints on how best to educate teens. But most agree there is cause for concern as the state has one of the nation's highest teen-pregnancy and teen-birth rates.

"I don't really get the debate because everyone is after the same goal: to prevent teen pregnancy and the spread of (sexually transmitted) diseases," said Will Humble, interim director of the Arizona Department of Health Services. "I don't believe that it should be a 'one size fits all' philosophy."

For the coming year, the federal program requires a state match of $776,082. The match was one of the reasons Napolitano declined the funds last year.

But the Department of Health Services found outside contractors to put up the matching funds, officials said, eliminating any need to pull cash from already-depleted state coffers.

Reach the reporter at ginger. rough@arizonarepublic.com