DARE TASK FORCE UNSURE OF PURPOSE

County Executive Says Group To Anaylze Program

Members of a task force evaluating the county's popular but controversial
DARE anti-drug-abuse program were puzzled Monday about whether their
mission was to evaluate continued county funding for DARE or review the
program's effectiveness.

"What are we judging here?" asked Noel Adams, alcohol and other addictions
program coordinator for the Menomonee Falls School District.

"Almost everyone here said DARE alone doesn't prevent drug abuse. So do we
eliminate it? No, I don't think that's what we're doing here," Adams said.

Started in 1983 in Los Angeles, Drug Abuse Resistance Education's core
curriculum is taught to fifth- and sixth-graders. The program emphasizes
the dangers of drugs and alcohol. It has been used widely in Waukesha
County schools for 10 years and has the support of Waukesha County District
Attorney Paul Bucher and Sheriff William Kruziki.

The county sends $40 per student - about $140,000 a year - to police
departments to help offset their DARE costs, which are often shared by
municipalities and school districts.

In addition, the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department spends another
$282,000 on its own DARE program, which reaches 3,500 to 3,800 students, at
a cost of $75 to $80 per child.

County Executive Dan Finley, who appointed the group of five to analyze the
program using existing studies of DARE, told the group that "taxpayers
demand results" from any programs funded with their tax dollars.

"This is going to be a very difficult assignment," Finley said. "DARE has
emerged as a success in the eyes of very many people. But it's also come
under scrutiny in the last several years. There have been any number of
studies that suggest the results are questionable."

Finley, who has said he is facing the toughest budget-preparation challenge
in more than a decade for 2002, has denied that he has targeted the program
for elimination.

Of the county's investment in DARE, Finley said: "The county spends a lot
of money on (DARE). But we've never given it the scrutiny it demands."

However, Kruziki told the task force Monday he was upset by the formation
of the panel and challenged the county to appoint similar committees to
evaluate "every county program. Let's micromanage it."

"The bottom line is if somebody says you can't teach DARE, I've got news
for you. The police departments are still going to keep DARE. The program
is still going to be here," he said.

"We need to look at it on a micro-level," said Sharon Wisniewski, alcohol
and other drug abuse coordinator for the area's Cooperative Educational
Service Agency, which assists local public school officials. "We need to
ask ourselves what it is we want DARE to do here. What does the county want
DARE to do?"

The group hopes to narrow its mission statement at its next meeting, June
27, and begin reviewing data.

Several educators and law enforcement officials from Menomonee Falls
attended the task force's first meeting to voice support for the program.

Among them was Karen Nelson, Menomonee Falls School Board president, who
urged the task force not to "blend" the issues of county funding for the
program with the merits of the program.

DARE "is bigger than drug and alcohol abuse prevention," she said. DARE
students learn valuable decision-making skills that help them deal
specifically with peer pressure - something she said is often overlooked at
home.