Texas may cut costly steroid testing program

AUSTIN, Texas - When Texas began testing tens of thousands of high school athletes for steroids, the goal was to stop teens from taking dangerous performance-enhancing drugs. The death of a 17-year-old baseball player in a Dallas suburb had drawn national attention to the hazard.

But that program could now be axed to save money. Tough economic times are prompting the state, along with school districts across the country, to pull back from steroid testing just a few years after a series of scandals in professional and amateur sports.

"When steroids was all over the media, everybody said, 'We've got to have it,' " said Chris Franz of Sport Safe, an Ohio-based company that conducts recreational drug and steroid testing for high schools and districts across the country.

In 2008, Texas became the third state to begin steroid testing, setting up a vast $6-million program. Every one of the state's 700,000-plus public school athletes, from freshman female tennis players to senior football offensive linemen, was eligible to be selected randomly and required to submit a urine sample.

But after the first 50,000 tests produced fewer than two dozen confirmed cases, critics derided the effort as a waste of money. This month, with Texas facing a projected $15-billion budget shortfall, the House's first draft budget eliminated the program's money. A Senate draft still includes funding.

Even some one-time supporters are wavering. "We accomplished our goal," said state Rep. Dan Flynn, "and that was to educate and create a deterrent."

New Jersey and Illinois also have statewide programs. Florida eliminated its small testing program in 2009. Many school districts also conducted testing; the number isn't known.

Programs were often funded with state and federal grants. Now, as money starts running out, so does the desire to keep testing. Depending on its complexity, steroid testing can exceed $100 per student. When schools see very few getting caught, they decide to pull back.

"If schools had the budget to do it, they would," Franz said. "The biggest thing Texas would be missing is the deterrent. And that's too bad."

Eliminating the program now would only encourage steroid use, said Don Hooton, of Frisco, who started the Taylor Hooton Foundation after his 17-year-old son's suicide in 2003 was linked to steroid use. "It's like a school district that has a serious gun violence problem and puts up metal detectors," Hooton said. "When gun violence goes down, they say, 'Well, that's a waste of money, let's take the metal detectors away because we don't have a problem anymore.' "

Texas has been scaling down the program almost since it began. The original $6-million budget was slashed to $2 million in 2009. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, an early supporter, intends to fight to preserve the tests as "an important deterrent," said his spokesman, Mike Walz.

When put up against proposed budget cuts for teachers and prekindergarten programs, health care for the poor and myriad other budget issues, said Flynn, "What's more important? We didn't catch a lot of kids, but we were hoping we wouldn't have to. I can't fight to get $1.8 million."

Hooton said Texas' action will have national consequences. "If Texas kills this program, it will become an excuse for other states to never stick their toe in the water and make a run in this thing."