Washington, DC: Federal grants totaling more than $7 million will be used to pay for the establishment of random student drug testing in 350 schools nationwide, according to an announcement last week by the US Department of Education (DOE).
According to the agency, school districts in 21 states will receive federal grant money to implement drug testing programs for the 2005-2006 school year. Of the 21 states receiving funding, schools in Texas will receive the largest allocation of federal moneys, approximately $2.4 million.
Earlier this year, the White House sponsored a series of regional summits to encourage middle and high-school officials to enact random drug testing in public schools for students who participate in extracurricular activities or drive to campus. In addition, the Bush administration recently proposed increasing the amount of federal funds available to pay for student drug testing programs by more than 150 percent to a record $25.4 million annually.
NORML Senior Policy Analyst Paul Armentano strongly criticized the White Houses’ push for the expanded use of student drug testing, stating: “Random drug testing of students is a humiliating, invasive practice that runs contrary to the principles of due process. It compels teens to submit evidence against themselves and forfeit their privacy rights as a necessary requirement for attending school. Rather than presuming our school children innocent of illicit activity, suspicionless drug testing presumes them guilty until they prove themselves innocent. Is this truly the message the Bush administration wishes to send America’s young people?”
Armentano added that the only federally commissioned review examining the effectiveness of student drug testing programs found the policy to have no discernible impact on youth drug use. The 2003 study of 76,000 students by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, concluded, “At each grade level – 8, 10, and 12 – the investigators found virtually identical rates of drug use” in schools that drug tested versus those that did not.
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500. A complete list of grantees is available online from the Department of Education at:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/drugtesting/awards.html