Scaling back steroid testing in the schools

Yes, yes, yes.

House and Senate budget negotiators will decide in the coming weeks whether the [$3 million a year program to test high school student athletes for steroids] continues -- and its scope and pace.

"It's not needed. House members think that we should not do the test at all," said House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie. Pitts will lead House members in their negotiations with Senate counterparts.

A scaled-down program is possible, Pitts said. And that would satisfy Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, who sponsored the steroid-testing legislation two years ago.

He prefers a scaled-down program where random tests for steroid use are given to students who participate in football, track, weight lifting and wrestling, sports in which steroid abuse is most prevalent, as opposed to volleyball, for example.

"No, we don't have a whole lot of people that we caught, but the whole idea was for them not to use it," Flynn said. "It was a fairness and health issue, and we think we raised that level of awareness to a bar where it's been successful."

As noted, in the story, a grand total of 11 athletes, out of 29,000 tested, came up positive. Both Rep. Flynn and Lt. Gov. Dewhurst, who was also quoted in support of this foolishness, have given all kinds of silly justifications for this in the past as well. Even Governor Perry supports scaling this back. Now three million bucks is chump change in the context of the budget. Killing this program isn't going to achieve any real savings. That's not the point. Steroid testing was done for a reason, whether you believe it was deterrence or fact-finding or something else, and the results have shown that it's not needed. We should pay heed to those results and take the next logical step.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on May 06, 2009 to Budget ballyhoo