SAYING GOODBYE TO DARE PROGRAM

Since 1998, Lee County's fifth-graders have been taught the DARE program.

Once this school year ends, the Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education
program will be no more.

Basically, the program has been funded by the City of Sanford, Lee County
and the Lee County Board of Education. The city has said it will no longer
fund the program, and the other two entities decided they could not afford
the program by themselves.

The city reasoning seems logical. "City residents pay both county and city
taxes," according to Sanford City Manager Leonard Barefoot. "So the city's
share of the cost was too much. Basically, half of the tax money that the
county has comes from city residents. So we're actually paying about two
thirds of the cost. We've never debated whether it's a good program or not.
It's only been about equitable distribution of cost."

Yet, Lee County Tax Administrator Roger Kelley makes a good point himself,
by saying, "Sure, the county brings in revenue from city residents. But I
don't believe the city funds the Board of Education, the Health Department,
Social Services Copyright these are programs city residents use. And I
don't think the city's in on that budget, so it depends how you want to
look at it. There are pros and cons to every story."

Exactly.

The key question, however, is: Do our children benefit from the program?

"I can't show you where drug use has gone down, but at least we're
educating kids about it," said Chief Deputy Ronnie Currin of the Lee County
Sheriff's Department, which is responsible for the DARE program.

"It's like saying driver's education is ineffective because there are still
kids who get in vehicle accidents. But does that mean you'll just hand kids
their license when they're 16 instead of teaching them how to drive?"

There may be no way to adequately judge the success of the DARE program,
although it's hard to say the presence of the program has reduced drug use
among our teens.

If anything, these numbers are growing.

City council, county commissioners and the school board have to be
accountable for the funds they are in charge of spending. It's especially
important to be frugal in tight economic times.

And it's also important to take a look at whether the money they are
spending on drug education is getting the job done.

The school board and administration need to determine the effectiveness of
the DARE program, or alternative programs (the UNC School of Public Health,
conducted a study in 2002 that concluded that evidence-based programs such
as LifeSkills Training are likely to be more effective in preventing
substance use by children than programs such as DARE, which is not
evidence-based), and present their findings to county commissioners.

In some form or fashion, the community must find a way to assure our
youngsters will continue to get proper drug and alcohol education - whether
it be through a DARE-type program or through other means.