Despite criticism, a Middlebury College professor maintains that his idea for a "drinking license" for underagers would help to combat dangerous drinking.

John McCardell, history professor and former college president, proposed the license to be available to 18- to 20-year-olds and said it would be obtained after successfully completing an alcohol education program.

McCardell is the director of the nonprofit organization Choose Responsibility, which is nearly two months old and seeks to promote national awareness of the hazards associated with excessive and reckless underage drinking, he said.

"We believed on the basis of the white paper research that the time had come to encourage a public discussion and debate about the effects of the legal drinking age, 21," McCardell said.

The ideal outcome of Choose Responsibility's efforts would be two-fold, according to McCardell. Currently, the law doesn't set a national drinking age; it is left up to the states to do so. However, if the state set the age below 21 years old, then it must forfeit 10 percent of its highway funds as part of an accountability mechanism for the states, he said.

McCardell hopes to "de-couple" this condition by imposing a new condition of education and licensing. Under McCardell's proposal, the state would adopt a plan that would acknowledge and educate 18- to 20-year-olds, who would then ideally make more responsible decisions related to drinking. After successful completion of the program, one could receive a license permitting them to drink alcohol.

Rebecca Shaver, regional executive director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving Pennsylvania and New Jersey, said the idea for persons under 21 drinking legally is "ludicrous."

"Alcohol, when consumed by young people under the age of 21, affects them in a negative way -- brain development and organ development ... The earlier the drinking, the more likely they are to develop an addiction. Alcohol is toxin to a young body," Shaver said.

Shaver also believes that being 21 isn't a "rights and responsibility" issue, but more of a "public and safety" issue.

"We already have a drinking problem. Why would we go backwards and make it easier for kids [to drink]?" Shaver said.

Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, said he was in no way motivated to lower the drinking age; however, he supports the idea of more alcohol-related education. "I'm more apt to start a program and apply it to our current age and see its effectiveness rather doing it both steps at one time. Taking a course and giving a license out doesn't qualify a person to be a more responsible drinker," Benninghoff said.

Matt Hardock (sophomore-information science and technology) said the reason young adults make reckless decisions regarding alcohol is because they "are sheltered from alcohol, and when they start to drink, they don't know how to handle it."

Hardock said he believes instituting an educational program along with the licensing would reduce such reckless behavior among 18- to 20-year-olds.

McCardell encourages those who oppose his efforts to "look at the facts." He said people like to attribute underage drinking to undesirable outcomes but never seek other possibilities. Also, some people praise the 21-year drinking age for fewer occurrences of certain issues but neglect to cite other factors, he said.

"If we are going to insist upon a cause-and-effect relationship between legal age 21 and alcohol-related traffic fatalities, then we need the other statistics. I think it's traceable to many things, like safer automobiles and designated drivers," McCardell said.