WHY PLACE OBSTACLES ON EDUCATION PATH?

I recently became aware of the Higher Education Act of 1998, which delays
or denies federal financial aid to any student with any drug offense.
Placing obstacles in the path to education is not a productive approach to
the problem of substance abuse. This law discourages young people who have
had minor legal troubles from taking the best step available for turning
their lives around: education.

Here are some reasons the HEA drug provision is wrong.

Judges already have the power to rescind financial aid eligibility as
individual cases warrant. The HEA drug provision removes that discretion.
The vast majority of Americans convicted of a drug offense are convicted of
nonviolent, low-level possession.

The HEA drug provision represents a penalty levied only on the poor and the
working class; wealthier students will not have the doors of college closed
to them for want of financial aid.

The provision will also have a disparate impact on different races.
African-Americans, for example, who comprise 12 percent of the population
and 13 percent of all drug users, account for more than 55 percent of those
convicted of drug charges. No other class of offense carries automatic loss
of financial aid eligibility.

Access to a college education is the surest route to the mainstream economy
and a crime-free life. Congress is poised to debate H.R. 786, a bill to
repeal this unfair act. Let's give these poor kids a second chance and make
the "compassionate" Christian Congress responsible for its charitable claims.

Frank Cousins

Oak Harbor