4 ms·
These stories become like memes that get reposted over and over. There was a "study" about drug testing welfare applicants in Florida a few years ago where the
by kwillets 8y ago
These stories become like memes that get reposted over and over.
There was a "study" about drug testing welfare applicants in Florida a few years ago where the authors claimed that it only caught a handful of people and cost more than the money saved.
I looked up the numbers and found that applications took a historic plunge when the law went into effect, and an equally large increase after the law was suspended. It was a huge multi-stage funnel where the study only looked at one stage after thousands of applicants had already self-selected for drug-freeness. Applications went down by thousands, and payouts by millions.
Basically if you hired a data scientist who told you this about some funnel you were analyzing, like a purchase or sign-up flow, you would fire this person within five minutes. But people repeated this gotcha story everywhere.
- sjg007 8y agoCitation?
- kwillets 8y agohttps://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/1597_Welfare_Applicants_Decline_Drug_Test_in_Fla_131555628.html https://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/1597_Welfare_Applicant...
- sjg007 8y agoThis does not support your claim.
- VintageCool 8y agoI found a reference that 1600 applicants declined the mandatory testing from July-October 2011. Meanwhile 7000 applicants underwent testing, of which 1% failed. I haven't been able to find monthly figures for before, during, and after -- so I, too, would like to see kwillet's data.
- kwillets 8y agohttp://fga.wpengine.com/2011/10/floridas-drug-test-law-for-welfare-cash-assistance-first-quarter-facts-2/ http://fga.wpengine.com/2011/10/floridas-drug-test-law-for-w... This is heavily slanted, but I believe their numbers are factual.