4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, May 27, 2003
420 MAYNARD STREET
ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 SRAVYA CHIRUMAMILLA JASON PESICK
letters@michigandaily.com Editor in Chief Editorial Page Editor +
fJtU] EDITED AND MANAGED BY
UH Unless otherise noted, unsigned editorils reflect the opinion of
AZVSTUDENTS AT THE Unesohrientd nindeioil elc h pno f
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other pieces do not
SINCE 1890 necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily.
ending almost certain approval by a valuable strength now that the Lecturers
the University Board of Regents in W elCOm e iean s Employee Organization has formed.
June, current Interim Dean McDonald has also received much
Terrence McDonald will be appointed to be dedicatedts rrecognition both outside the University and
the permanent position of dean of LSA Deans must to students and transparency internally for his dedication to undergradu-
beginning this July. This is welcome good ate education, including his appointment as
news given the importance of the posi- This and the lack of transparency in the and financial flexibility loom large as full- the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor. The year's
tion, and as far as the student body is con- selection process are symptoms of a more fledged crises in the face of state budget service as interim LSA dean has given
cerned, it is good to get any news on mat- fundamental problem, which is the admin- cuts. McDonald will have to work hard to McDonald time to become acquainted with
ters of this source at all. The events lead- istration's drift away from a student- ensure that these budget cuts do not erode the issues that he will be facing.
ing up to the appointment of individuals focused agenda. The charges that under- the quality of undergraduate education. When the search for the law school dean
to prominent posts, such as University graduate education at the University is And it is likely that the U.S. Supreme has concluded, hopefully the chosen candi-
president, are routinely obscure. The compromised in favor of research and that Court's upcoming decision concerning the date will be as qualified and dedicated to
process of selecting the law school dean, despite high levels of spending on gradu- use of race conscious admissions policies students as McDonald has proven to be.
another high-profile position, continues ate programs, graduate students them- will force abrupt and major changes in the The law school also faces a legal challenge
to be a secretive affair. A single press selves receive inadequate support and college's admissions policies and proce- to its admissions policy, and the new dean
release announced the final six candi- health benefits, are familiar to anyone fol- dures. McDonald must be an advocate for will have to be as articulate a spokesman
dates for the position. lowing campus politics. The task of shift- diversity and must be prepared to find for affirmative action as the man who will
Impeccable credentials are not suffi- ing the focus back to serving students rests ways of maintaining a diverse student be replaced, Dean Jeffrey Lehman.
cient to prove a candidate's fitness for ser- upon the new appointees. body if the college's admissions policy is During such a pivotal time for the
vice to the University's students, and this Interim Dean McDonald, whose posi- deemed unconstitutional. University, the deans of its most prestigious
is evidenced by the fact that many high- tion as LSA dean will directly impact 77 In his earlier position as associate dean schools will face great challenges, but these
profile positions at the University are most percent of undergraduates, takes the reins for academic appointments, McDonald challenges will provide them with equally
notorious for their roles as launch pads to of the college at a particularly challenging showed skill and a sincere dedication to fac- great opportunities to make tremendous
bright administrative careers elsewhere. time. The perennial concerns of budget ulty and to non-tenure faculty in particular, strides for the University and its students.
I
Foggy test logic
School drug tests should cease in light of new data
More fruitless testing
New federal education policies ineffective at best
t seems that the newest target of
America's "war on drugs" will be logic.
That is, if policymakers and school
administrators ignore evidence from the
University's newly completed study on the
efficacy of drug testing students involved in
extra-curricular activities in schools.
About eight years ago, on the front
lines of this particular U.S. war, the U.S.
Supreme Court decided that was so
important to prevent high school athletes
from using drugs that side-stepping the
Fourth Amendment was permissible.
Actually, according to the Supreme
Court, enforcing mandatory drug tests is
not an invasion of privacy because it will
get kids off drugs. It seems what they
meant to say was, drug testing is worth
the infringements on the Fourth
Amendment because it will have such
positive consequences.
In 1995, when the Supreme Court
spoke on this issue, Justice Antonin Scalia,
said the "efficacy of this means for
addressing the problem" of student drug
use is "self-evident." The University study,
however, debunks this argument by ques-
tioning the "efficacy" of drug testing.
The study, authored by Ryoko
Yamaguchi, Lloyd D. Johnston and
Patrick M. O'Malley, social scientists at
the Institute for Social Research, disput-
ed the "self-evident" efficacy of drug
testing as a preventative method with
cold hard facts. This federally funded
study surveyed over 76,000 students
nationwide. In the end, the authors con-
cluded that there is no difference
between the percentage of drug users in
schools which conduct drug tests com-
pared to those who do not. The study
found that in schools that do not test stu-
dents for use of marijuana and other
illicit drugs, 36 percent of students had
used such drugs within the previous 12-
month period. The number was 37 per-
cent in schools that do conduct testing.
In other words, testing for drugs is not
an effective deterrent.
In addition, it seems that the tests are
easy to fool. The urinalysis is not as accu-
rate as a blood test, and students have
found techniques which turn the task of
passing the tests into a game of sorts.
Resorting to testing students' blood
seems a far too invasive step for public
schools to take in order to ensure that the
members of their debate teams are not
smoking marijuana in their free time.
This information was not available to
the Supreme Court eight years ago. Now
that it is, by the court's own logic, manda-
tory drug tests can only be viewed as
unconstitutional; however, it is currently
legal to administer drug tests to any stu-
dent who is involved in any extracurricular
activity, not just to athletes.
During a time when state and local
governments are facing tremendous fis-
cal crises as the economy remains sour, it
seems illogical to send tax dollars toward
drug tests which have been proven to be
ineffective. Surely the country's schools
have more pressing needs to spend covet-
ed money on than drug tests, especially
in light of these data.
Because it has been shown that these
drug tests are ineffective, violating stu-
dents' rights by testing their own bodies
without a warrant and probable cause is not
only futile, but unconstitutional as well.
This study is yet another nail in the coffin
of this country's feckless and at times com-
ical war on drugs.
The No Child Left Behind Act is
just not measuring up. This year
marks the first full school year
that this legislation, passed in 2002, has
been in place, and instead of improving
public schools, states are already lower-
ing their testing standards in order to
avoid the heavy penalties that the law
imposes on failing schools.
The state of Texas recently changed the
number of correct answers needed to pass
the state's standardized test from 24 out of
36 to 20. In Michigan, where standards were
the highest in the nation, No Child Left
Behind labeled 1,513 schools as inefficient.
Thus, Michigan officials lowered the per-
centage of students who must pass the stan-
dardized test. The adjustment decreased the
inefficient number of schools to 216.
The law, which easily sailed through
Congress with bipartisan support, will
never achieve the higher level of educa-
tion it has set out to because, states are
able to formulate their own definitions of
success. In order to avoid loss of funding,
states will simply continue to readjust
their levels of proficiency, allowing stu-
dent performance to stagnate or even
decline. While some officials are making
assurances that checks are in place to
ensure states cannot lower their standards
significantly, the bar measuring success
does not seem to be very high. The state
of Michigan, for example, was allowed to
lower the number of high school students
who must passthe English exam from 75
percent to 45 percent. In Colorado, the
grading of tests has been altogether over-
hauled and educators are lumping stu-
dents who scored in the "partially profi-
cient" realm with those who were "profi-
cient." It is estimated that it would cost
between $1.9 and $5.3 billion to eliminate
the discrepancies between states, yet
Congress has not appropriated enough
money to schools to cover these costs.
The new law is also a double-edged
sword for some schools. Poor rural
schools that barely have enough money
for new library books and have a majority
of students failing to reach existing state
testing standards risk losing even more
money. Great losses will only further
damage their education systems. No
Child Left Behind set itself up for failure
when it demanded that all schools be 100
percent proficient in reading and math by
2014. This will prove to be nearly impos-
sible for some schools to meet as many
currently are only 50 to 60 percent profi-
cient. Most are simply marking time, hop-
ing that legislation will surface that
allows states to back out of the bill.
This manipulation of the law's intent
makes a mockery of the president's oft-
heralded education strategy. The president
received praise as a candidate for suppos-
edly turning around the Texas public edu-
cation system with these get-tough poli-
cies. While experts have debunked the
assertion that such a transformation ever
took place in Texas, it is ironic that this
new no-nonsense strategy to reform the
public school system would allow such
shenanigans. Not only does the No Child
Left Behind Act provide members of
Congress, the president and the U.S. pub-
lic with the false notion that positive
action is being taken on the education
front, but these latest revelations are fur-
ther evidence that despite the hype, stan-
dardized tests are not the silver bullet for
the country's education problems that their
supporters incessantly claim.