Ever the progressive city, San Francisco public schools are considering a policy that would distribute condoms in middle school, and parents could not opt out of the program. In January, San Francisco Superintendent Richard Carranza told the city’s Board of Education that the school is considering using the city’s Department of Public health to distribute condoms through schools’ social workers and nurses. The city has distributed the contraception at the high school level since 1991, and five years later, it amended the policy to allow parents to opt out of the program. Whatever happened to parents’ involvement in their children’s education?

Across the nation, in Virginia, Laura Murphy is lobbying for a state bill that would require public schools to notify parents if the books they assign have sexually explicit content. Murphy, a mother of four, was shocked to discover a book her son was assigned in English class had descriptions of sex and bestiality in it. After she got the run around from the Virginia Board of Education, she took her concern to the commonwealth’s legislating body. Ultimately, it is the parents that are in charge of a child’s education, and it is ultimately their responsibility to live out and pass down a moral code. Just like public education does not teach religion or faith, it doesn’t do too well imparting morality either.

If parents don’t communicate a clear moral code, the results can be disastrous. Just take the issue of pornography. According to a recent study by the Barna Group, most Americans think porn use is harmful to society. But that thinking is shifting among younger Americans. “Teens & young adults view ‘not recycling, as more immoral than viewing porn,” Barna reports. “32% say viewing porn is 'usually or always wrong’ compared to 56% who say not recycling is ‘usually or always wrong.’”

These three stories combined reveal a much bigger picture of cultural rot that’s having devastating consequences for family, society and government.