34,000 MAY NOT GET STUDENT AID BECAUSE OF DRUG CONVICTIONS

Education Department Could Screen Out Three Times As Many As Last Year

A ban on giving federal aid to college, graduate and professional-school
students with drug convictions could mean more than 34,000 people will be
denied loans and grants in the coming school year -- more than triple those
turned away in 2000-01.

The increase reflects a clarification in the U.S. Education Department's
aid application, which screens for people with drug records. The change has
brought louder protests against the ban. Even the measure's author says
enforcement has been taken too far.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., intended the aid ban to apply only to students
already getting loans or grants when convicted, an aide said.

Instead, education officials under President Bush -- following the lead of
those in the Clinton administration -- are denying aid to people with
previous drug convictions. Souder is trying to get them to change their
enforcement efforts to match his intent, said Angela Flood, Souder's chief
of staff.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has introduced a bill seeking the law's repeal.
Repeal is also the aim of the fledgling Students for Sensible Drug Policy
and its 140 campus chapters. Higher-education leaders are protesting, too.

Complaints Registered

The law is "fundamentally flawed," and amounts to "double punishment" --
and bias -- against low- and middle-income students who must undergo
screening while their wealthier peers do not, Stanley Ikenberry, head of
the American Council on Education, wrote in May to U.S. Rep. Asa
Hutchinson, R-Ark. Hutchinson is Bush's nominee to run the Drug Enforcement
Administration.

The council is "concerned that this provision will prove to be an
insurmountable obstacle to far too many students, causing many of them to
abandon their hope of a college education," Ikenberry wrote on behalf of 13
groups, including the nation's major associations of colleges and universities.

The education agency is only doing what Congress asked, said Lindsey
Kozberg, Education Department press secretary.

"Consistent with the department's overall position, we seek applications
from students that are complete and accurate, so we can provide aid to as
many eligible students as possible," she said.

The law, approved in 1998, bars federal grants, work-study money and
U.S.-backed student loans to anyone convicted of selling or possessing
drugs. For a first drug-possession offense, ineligibility lasts a year
after conviction; for a second offense, two years. More convictions bar aid
indefinitely.

The law is tougher on traffickers. A single drug-sale conviction means aid
ineligibility for two years; more than that and the ban is indefinite. Aid
can be restored if a student undergoes drug rehabilitation.

Those who fail to answer the question about drug offenses on the Free
Application for Federal Student Aid are sent a follow-up letter asking
again. If they still don't answer, aid is automatically denied.

Confusing Question

Phrasing on last year's form confused people: "If you have never been
convicted of any illegal drug offense, enter '1' in the box."

Even after a follow-up letter, 279,098 people left the box blank. Federal
officials blamed their confusing question, and granted aid to those who
didn't answer. After consulting with focus groups, they changed the
question to make it clearer.

A total of 9,548 people who admitted to having drug convictions were denied
aid in the 2000-01 cycle.

This year, the government expects 10 million aid applications. Among 6.8
million so far, 34,096 will probably be denied student aid, officials said.
While 21,993 disclosed a drug conviction making them ineligible, an
additional 12,103 failed to answer the drug question.

Unknown is how many the law scares off.

"Many people will not apply because they're not eligible, or they think
they're not eligible," said Corye Barbour, lobbyist at the United States
Student Association. "We don't have any way to estimate them."

One is Todd Howard, a 32-year-old store clerk in Louisville, Ky.

Eager To Advance

With a high school diploma and some computer training, he's eager to
advance. But the $15,000 he needs for a two-year college program is out of
reach. So is a federal student loan.

Howard said he has two misdemeanor convictions for marijuana possession,
one from 1996, the second this month. Howard said he has quit using the
drug, and feels it's irrelevant to his college plans.

"Ask me if I pay my loans back," he said. "Ask me if I would finish the
course. Ask me if I would go out and try to get a job once I finish the
courses."

He'll wait two years to become eligible for aid. He claims it would be
wrong to enter rehab just to get the money. "I don't think it's right,"
Howard said.