The state of Texas leads the nation in throwing money at sex-education programs that preach abstinence, the

has reported -- $17 million in state funds and $3 million of your Texas tax dollars. (As we've noted

, HISD says it doesn't keep track "centrally" of how much it spends on abstinence programs; it's done only on a school-by-school basis that apparently is impossible to track. Or at least impossible to track when you'd rather not talk about the subject.)

Amazingly, Texas' policy of teaching only "DON'T DO IT!!!! EVER!!!" doesn't seem to be working.

A recent federal study showed that 53 percent of Texas high schoolers had had intercourse, compared to 48 percent nationally.

Teaching kids abstinence isn't working? Sounds impossible. (In Bizarro World, anyway.)

We've prepared a highly scientific chart that explains the situation. -- Richard Connelly