John Kasich in Courage Is Contagious, by John Kasich

On Health Care: Equalize mental health coverage with physical health

I led the fight in the House. I would have preferred for the industry to come forward with a voluntary plan for parity, but they did not, so I felt Congress should act.

Our efforts were successful. The Mental Health Parity Act became law in 1998, and requires annual and aggregate lifetime dollar limits to be the same for mental health coverage as for physical health coverage. The law isn't perfect. There are more limits on the coverage than we wanted. But it is a start.

On Drugs: Educate students that marijuana is a gateway drug

Jessica hates the drugs but not the abusers. Although she opposes any legalization of drugs, she thinks treatment, not jail, is the answer for most drug abusers. If people must be jailed, she thinks, they must receive treatment there.

She thinks more anti-drug education, starting at earlier ages, is needed in the schools. She warns students that marijuana is both addictive and a "gateway" to other drugs. She would like to see tougher laws against drunk driving. Based on her own life experience, she wants to see drug abuse treated more as a public health problem.

I have no doubt we will hear more of Jessica and her war on drugs.

On Crime: Cops & Kids Plan: put more police on the street

In 1990 the city of New York decided to open a number of "Beacon Schools." The idea was to redesign existing schools to become multi-service centers that would be open afternoons and evenings, every day of the year. The Beacon Schools were part of a "Cops & Kids Plan" that would also put more police on the street.

"It was a sound strategy," Geoff says. "This isn't rocket science. You put more police on the street and you give kids more positive options."

[Now, Geoff's] community center offers a variety of services, including job training and karate services. Tough discipline is basic to the program. The violence outside cannot be allowed in. The school is a beacon for all that is good in the community, and naturally they are resented by the drug dealers who used to control the block.

On Drugs: Place babies of addicted mothers into foster homes

The problem was that the system was overwhelmed and children were staying weeks, months, even years in hospitals before homes were found. "Boarder babies," they were called. Keeping them in hospitals like that was called "warehousing."

The city was using the most expensive means possible to care for the children: a foster home would cost a fraction of what hospital care cost. The pressure of lawsuits resulted in out-of-court settlements in which city and state officials agreed to accelerate the placement of children in foster homes. Soon, the city had made dramatic progress in reducing the time taken to place children--down to an average of three days, even for "at-risk" babies.