Website: http://www.review.udel.edu/
Author: Deanna Tortorello

PROPOSAL PROTECTS FAFSA ASSISTANCE

WASHINGTON -- Legislators met on Capitol Hill Wednesday to introduce a bill
that would repeal a 1998 Higher Education Act stipulation, which curently
takes away federal student aid from convicted drug offenders.

Led by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a group of lawmakers, lobbyists and
student supporters of the bill gathered in the Rayburn House Office
Building to discuss the pros and cons of the current ordinance.

The speakers voiced their opinions on the 1998 addendum, all returning to
one main point -- the structure of the law is unfair to students in two ways:

students who have made an effort to clean up their lives are forced to
remain in their situation because they cannot educate themselves well
enough to move forward with their lives;

and the law unfairly judges against drug offenders, removing aid from them
but not from other convicted criminals.

"To classify drugs as the most heinous crime makes no sense," Frank said.
"This automatic situation shouldn't be true for any situation.

"It is a poor approach across the board."

Eileen O'Leary, president of the Massachusetts Association of Student
Financial Aid Administrators, said the categorical approach of the law is
unfair because other criminals are not prosecuted in the same way.

Frank said the law should be repealed due to this fault.

"The law should treat all criminals the same," he said, " but I would not
support legislation that covers all criminals."

In its current state, the bill takes aid away from students convicted of
possession of a controlled substance or the sale of a controlled substance.

A student can be banned from aid for one year for their first possession
offense, two years for their second offense and indefinitely for their
third offense.

The punishment for a sales offense is slightly harsher, carrying a two-year
ban after the student's first offense and an indefinite ban after the second.

Students can redeem themselves in the eyes of the law by successfully
completing an approved drug rehabilitation program.

Corey Barbour, legislative director of the United States Student
Association, said this provision does not necessarily mean the offenders
will resume their college careers.

"With a pause in the middle of a student's college career, they are less
likely to earn their degree," he said.

Barbour said the law has an even larger effect on minorities.

"Even if [a minority student] makes it to college, they do not earn a
degree because they cannot afford it," he said.

The law is more likely to affect a minority student's funding due to racial
profiling problems countrywide, Barbour said.

O'Leary said the power this law has in deciding a student's future is a
partial explanation for the low income of former drug offenders, especially
those who come from a low-income background.

"A degree is the key to earning money," he said. "A poor student who has
made a mistake pays the price in the eyes of the law and then is punished
again in the loss of federal aid.

"They cannot reach up and out of poverty."

Shawn Heller, national director for the Students for Sensible Drug Policy,
said students from across the country have banned together to fight the bill.

"This issue is so important that our organization has doubled its numbers
in the last six months," he said.

Schools such as the University of Maryland, Yale University, University of
Michigan and George Washington University have all joined in support of the
bill.