Mathematics is not their strong suit

I understand that with all their fancy lawyering, and all the law school they had to attend so they could do said lawyering, the folks at the ACLU didn’t really have time to take a bunch of mathematics courses. And besides, they hire actual accountants to count up all them hours doing “the law”.

Well, they should have figured someone would fact check them on something this simple:

We’ve told you a few times about Florida’s horrible new law that drug tests all families applying for cash benefit welfare applicants. The law, which went into effect July 1, makes applicants front the cost of the drug test and reimburses individuals if they test negative.

The ACLU and others predicted this program would be a failure and cost the state of Florida much more money than they would save. Guess what? In just the few weeks that the program has been in effect we have been proven right.

The Department of Children and Families’ central region has tested 40 applicants since the law went into effect six weeks ago, and of those 40 applicants, 38 tested negative for drugs. The cost to the state of Florida to reimburse those 38 individuals who tested negative was at least $1,140 over the course of six weeks. Meanwhile, denying benefits to the two applicants who tested positive will save Florida less than $240 a month.

While I don’t really care if a person uses drugs, I absolutely care if they are going to use drugs and then beg for taxpayer assistance. So let me just do a quick little bit of number crunching here. And unlike the ACLU, you are free to examine my amateur mathematical analysis.

If an applicant tests positive, they are banned from reapplying for one year. So….

$240 per month, multiplied by 12 months = $2880 per year.

Multiply that with two applicants failing = $5760 saved already.

The state reimbursed 38 applicants for a $30 drug test for a total spent of $1140.

$5760 minus $1140 = $4620 saved by the state in six weeks.

If the State of Florida saves $4620 every six weeks for one year, the state will have saved a total of $40,040 in one year.

The $40,040 figure does not count the number of applicants who knew they wouldn’t pass the drug test and decided not to apply. I’m going to round that number up to an even $45,000.

So, it has been proven a hypothetical probability that by implementing a drug testing program, the State of Florida will likely save at least $40,000 per year (and that the ACLU lawyers cannot do maths).

Sounds like it is time to go national with the program.