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While teen pregnancy took center stage nationally with the news that GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s unwed 17-year old daughter is expecting, it is also an issue that is hot in Lowell these days. At its curriculum subcommittee meeting on Monday, Sept. 15, the Lowell School Committee will explore offering comprehensive sex education to its students as opposed to the program in place since 2003 when district budget cuts and federal funding mandated abstinence-only programs.  It is no secret that teen pregnancies directly correlate to dropout rates and poverty. What is debatable, however, is the role schools should play and the impact these programs have on teen behavior. As these responses (100+ comments) to an Aug. 21 article in the Sun show, sex education is controversial and fraught with misconceptions. The subcommittee meeting on Monday (2^nd floor, 155 Middlesex Street at 7 p.m.) is open to the public and should shed some light on the issue. It’s also important to remember, as this Globe article notes, many teen parents do not come from financially secure, supportive families as Palin’s, and of the 100 or so teen parents currently attending LHS, most struggle with basic living expenses and being able to attend school. Although some GOP supporters want to make Palin and her daughter heroines, I can’t help but see the irony of her family’s situation given her own and her party’s positions on sex education, contraception, and a women’s right to choose. The reality is most unwed teens continue a cycle of poverty they themselves were born into; it is only through education that we can stem that tide.