HEALEY SAYS SHE'LL HOLD OFF ON DARE FUNDING

STURBRIDGE -- Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey said yesterday she would not
recommend resurrecting state funding for the DARE program until a
nationwide study is complete several years from now, adding that she would
like to see more cooperation between schools and law enforcement in the
meantime.

"I personally will not recommend state funding . . . until I see the
results of that evaluation," Healey told reporters after speaking to about
100 DARE officials and students at a Cops and Kids Conference at the
Sturbridge Host Hotel. "In the meantime, I would like to see a number of
new programs involving police officers with school officials and the social
workers in order to prevent not only drug abuse by kids, but also to
decrease truancy, to decrease crime, to decrease gang activity, to decrease
violence in schools."

Such programs could be incorporated into community policing, she said. The
study by the University of Akron, with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, is focusing on a new DARE curriculum and students in Detroit,
Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, New Orleans, and St. Louis, according to the
DARE website. The study will track students for another two years,
according to the website.

"We're going to wait and make sure that we see that, in fact, the
curriculum has a positive impact on kids, as opposed to the current
curriculum that apparently had no impact on one aspect, which was drug
use," Healey said.

State funding for DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, was cut in 2002
by Acting Governor Jane Swift from $4.3 million to $200,000. "There's no
funding for it currently at the state level," Healey told reporters yesterday.

The program came back into the spotlight earlier this month when a state
criminal justice system report called it a failure. At the time, Healey
suggested that the old DARE curriculum was ineffective.

During Healey's remarks yesterday morning, one officer received applause
after telling her about the program's importance during a
question-and-answer period. Several speakers referred to DARE funding in
their introductions.

Healey told the officers that the state did not mean to close the door on
DARE funding, but simply meant to "raise the bar."

Special Officer Paul F. Anderson, copresident of the Massachusetts DARE
Officer's Association, said the lack of state funding has made it more
difficult for programs in smaller communities, which cannot easily rely on
local businesses for aid.

"I have no problem with raising the bar," Anderson said. "We'll raise the bar."

Healey said DARE has provided positive contact between police and schools
and reduced teenage smoking. But the administration is more likely to fund
tobacco-prevention programs, which have faced budget cuts, she said.