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Federal program contributed $185,894 locally last year.
A federal grant program that paid $185,894 to local schools last year for drug and alcohol abuse prevention programs is on the chopping block, a move longtime prevention service provider Ed Pane bluntly called “insane.”
President Barack Obama’s current 2010 budget proposal cuts all money for the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities program, which provided about $295 million nationwide. Pane, the executive director of Serento Gardens Drug and Alcohol Services in Hazleton, contrasted the proposed cut with the decision to spend $3 billion buying old cars for scrap through the “cash for clunkers” program.
“I would hope they would start to value our children as much as they value junk cars,” Pane said.
The money is awarded through a competitive grant process and is funneled through the state to individual school districts. The districts, in turn, typically contract with an outside agency, most often Serento gardens or Wyoming Valley Drug and Alcohol Services, to bring a prevention program into the schools. Locally, Hazleton Area School District got the biggest slice last year, $34,031; Wilkes-Barre Area got $30,612.
The Obama administration argues – as had President George W. Bush – that the idea may be good but the execution is poor. They cite a 2001 study that argued money was not going to the schools with the greatest need or toward programs that had been proven successful.
But Pane and Luzerne County Drug and Alcohol Services Executive Director Michael Donahue both argue that is no longer the case, and that the programs being used in the last five years have proven successful. Donahue conceded there are no local studies showing students who go through a program are less likely to use drugs, but noted it will take several more years for such studies to be done. He also said tests show that students walk out of programs with a better understanding of the dangers of drug and alcohol.
Donahue said the Safe Schools money is an important supplement to funds his agency gets, which totaled about $719,500 last year. “I would estimate eliminating the program would reduce preventive services in the schools by about 40 percent,” he said.
Pane conceded the cut directly affects his agency, but said that’s not the point. He noted studies show the longer young people avoid drugs and alcohol, the less likely they are to develop a problem, which in turn can result in crime, incarceration, and other long-term costs to society. One local survey of users in prison or rehab showed about 80 percent had started using before 17. “It made the case tremendously for drug prevention programs.”