AUSTIN (AP) Despite barely two dozen positive tests in three years, Texas is likely to keep its high school steroids testing program.

House and Senate lawmakers say the program will be pared down to test only a few sports, including football. It will spend about $1.5 million at a time when budget cuts threaten the jobs of tens of thousands of teachers and school workers across the state.

Texas has conducted more than 50,000 and found less than 30 confirmed cases of steroid use.

A spokesman for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst says testing is an effective deterrent to keep high school athletes from taking steroids.

Critics have questioned whether those results warrant keeping the program, which began with a $6 million budget in 2008 and has been getting smaller ever since.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)