THERE IS A PROBLEM, BUT IT ISN'T CLASS WARFARE

In protesting a law that bans federal college aid to students with
drug convictions, a coalition of academic groups played the class
warfare card. The American Council on Education said the law is
unfair because it is biased against low- and middle-income students
whose drug records are screened, while well-to-do students escape.

Well, that is one way to look at it. Only students who need financial
aid have to fill out the aid forms, which include a question about
drug offenses. Wealthier students who don't need aid don't face such
questions.

Perhaps the academicians' argument will be politically successful,
but it misses the point: The law is another example of imposing an
excessive punishment that is unrelated to the offense and that will
haunt the offender far into the future.

There have been a succession of these laws, federal and state, in the
last decade or so. We are deporting people who have spent virtually
their entire lives here for minor offenses committed years ago. We
pull driver's licenses for underage drinking, regardless of whether
the arrest even involved driving. Pennsylvania wants to require that
people be checked for criminal records far in the past before they
can baby-sit with their own grandchildren. People who were picked up
in California for minor offenses in the 1940s or '50s are finding
themselves on a list of sex criminals.

These laws are popular with a public convinced by television that
crime is out of control and that criminals aren't being punished.
Denying college aid because a student was once arrested for
possession of marijuana is simply part of this larger trend.