Political Quotes

“today we honor the National Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program, designated as DARE Day. DARE is an innovative and successful approach to drug abuse prevention. It recognizes that drug abuse prevention must be a cooperative effort between parents, educators, and law enforcement, and that education must begin early. The core curriculum of DARE focuses on fifth and sixth grade students in order to prepare them for entry into junior high and high school. Uniform police officers visit classrooms and tell the kids the cold, hard facts about drugs. Together, the students and officers develop ways of resisting peer pressure to try drugs and, instead, find alternatives to drug use. In other words, DARE does not just teach kids to say ``no'' to drugs, it provides them with the tools and the skills that are necessary to say ``no'' to drugs. During the 1993-94 school year, over 100,000 fifth and sixth graders in Michigan have received DARE classes. The number of students participating has grown every year since 1988, the year when pilot programs were developed and implemented in selected school districts around my State of Michigan. Similar success stories can be found in every State where DARE is active. A word of thanks and congratulations is due to the dedicated teachers and specially trained law enforcement personnel who have made DARE as effective as it is.”