DRUG CZAR AIMS TO REVAMP SCHOOL AID PROGRAM

Education: McCaffrey To Propose That Districts Compete For Antidrug Funds
Based On Need, Effectiveness.

WASHINGTON Drug czar Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey will outline proposed
legislation today to overhaul the way federal, state and local governments
combat drug abuse in schools, targeting federal antidrug money at campuses
that need it most.

Acknowledging that the government's largest program to battle drug use and
school violence is rife with "shortfalls," McCaffrey, director of the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will propose a new
"competitive" funding policy, in which local school districts would develop
benchmarks that state officials could use to determine which districts
deserve federal aid.

The legislation would redistribute the program's $591million allocation for
the next fiscal year, supporting antidrug programs in school districts that
demonstrate the greatest need while denying money to districts whose needs
are less acute or whose programs are less effective.

"We've got tons of schools that are receiving low amounts of funds. We are
not helping anyone by trying to help everyone," said Rob Housman, deputy
strategy director of the National Drug Control Policy. "In redividing the
pie, we are going to target need and quality [of antidrug programs]." The
proposed legislation, a joint effort of McCaffrey and Secretary of
Education Richard W. Riley, will most likely piggyback on the mammoth
education bill. Through a spokesman, McCaffrey called the changes a
"preemptive strike" to fix the Safe and DrugFree Schools and Communities
Program.

Critics have assailed it as ineffective, poorly monitored and barely
relevant to youth violence or drug abuse.

In 1998, the program distributed $556 million to state governments, who
doled it out to school districts that requested assistance. McCaffrey and
Riley have acknowledged that the process often showed little regard for
need and placed few requirements on schools to link program funding with
results.

A Times investigation last fall found that, under the program, taxpayer
dollars went for such expenses as puppet shows, tickets to Disneyland and
resort weekends.

In a statement of his testimony to be presented before the Senate Committee
on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, McCaffrey said some districts are
squandering money on drug programs that don't work.

Under his proposal, state education departments would be required to
allocate funds only to those schools that best met certain criteria,
including high rates of alcohol, tobacco, or drug use among youth, and high
rates of drugrelated delinquency. School districts also would have to
establish their own benchmarks by which their progress could be monitored.
"You will be able to lay [the schools] down side by side and say, 'Do these
things have the markers of success?' " Housman said.

The legislation would also make state officials publicly accountable to the
federal government, requiring them to report annually on their state's
progress as measured against its own benchmarks.

But even if this legislation proved to be the silver bullet in combating
drug use in schools, state governments would only be allowed to fully fund
50% of the schools in their districts. "To run an effective program,
choices must be made," McCaffrey said.