AN INVESTMENT FOR CHILDREN

A job candidate has to be pretty stupid, or pretty something, to
take a drug test when he knows he isn't going to pass it. Yet
between February and November, 60 people offered jobs with DCFS or
one of the private social service agencies it contracts with took
and failed a drug test. That's 2 percent of candidates.

Those 60 people would be working directly with kids today if it
weren't for the drug screening. No telling how many other drug users
dropped out of the running for jobs once they learned about the
testing requirement.

At $23.50 a test, or $70,000 total for the period, this was money
well spent to help protect vulnerable children. DCFS agrees it's a
powerful deterrent and good investment and wants to continue the
testing. But in a misguided cost-saving move, it has stopped it indefinitely.

Surely there are other places in the budget to cut that would not
result in such a potentially harmful effect on children. Whatever
money is saved will not offset the risks of hiring drug users.