S.C. budget cuts affect DARE

AIKEN - The embattled Drug Abuse Resistance Education program took another hit this week when South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford released a proposed budget that would cut DARE officer instruction from the state's Criminal Justice Academy.

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About $200,000 in state funds would be saved by ending the 80-hour training course for officers who go on to teach DARE in elementary school rooms. The 10-week classroom course has police officers and deputies teaching students, mostly fifth-graders, about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse.

The Criminal Justice Academy is the primary entity in the state offering DARE officer training, Department of Public Safety Spokesman Sid Gauldin said. The Academy started offering DARE courses in 1989. The national DARE America organization also offers officer instruction at regional sites across the country.

Mr. Sanford decided DARE should be targeted after hearing from experts on his panel-level Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, whose director, W. Lee Catoe, agrees with the assessment that DARE isn't worth the resources the state spends on it.

"From all the information we have reviewed, the program was less than effective overall," Mr. Catoe said Friday.

While DARE still exists in some form in roughly 80 percent of the nation's school districts, it is slowly falling out of favor with some educators and law enforcement officials in light of studies that question its effectiveness. One long-term study conducted at the University of Kentucky said the program made little difference in the choices students made about drugs as they reached adulthood.

But DARE continues to have its supporters, including Aiken County Sheriff Mike Hunt, who says parents and local businesses have made it clear to him they want DARE to stay. His department has four DARE officers.

"When you go to the DARE graduations you see the enthusiasm the kids and the parents have for the program," Sheriff Hunt said. "It also builds trust between law enforcement and kids."

Reach Stephen Gurr at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110. or stephen.gurr@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Saturday, January 10, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle