NARCOTICS OFFENDERS CAN GET SCHOOL AID

Congress Orders Assistance For Education To Resume

James Harrison earned his high-school diploma while serving three
years in prison for trafficking heroin. From there, he went on to be
pardoned and earn his master's degree in human services from Lincoln
University in Oxford, Pa.

He also received a federal student loan to help finance the degree,
which he's still paying off. But the 49-year-old from Wilmington
credits the loan with saving his life.

"If I wasn't able to obtain my higher education, I would have to have
resorted to my old lifestyle of drug trafficking," Harrison said. "I
wouldn't have had any options if I didn't get the loan."Advertisement

He was able to get the loans because he went to college before 2000,
when a federal law took effect that denies or delays higher-education
financial aid to people with drug convictions. Critics of the law
estimate 200,000 students with drug-related convictions have been
denied federal student loans since 2000.

That is changing. Congress last week ordered the Bush administration
to resume grants and loans to applicants convicted of drug offenses
provided those crimes did not happen while they were enrolled in
college and receiving federal aid. The move matches a 2004 request by
the Delaware Legislature and, because the state historically uses the
federal law as a blueprint for handing out its own financial aid,
could change how state loans are distributed locally.

That's good news to Harrison. As director of Brandywine Counseling's
largest outpatient opiate treatment program in Wilmington, he
counsels many people hoping to pursue higher education.

"A lot of people come in with financial-aid problems," he said. "...
We tell them to find other funding sources in an effort to get an
education. It's a critical component."

He hopes the change in the law will help them. "It's a positive
thing, and it needs to be communicated to the people in the state who
think there's no use trying to pursue higher education. Many people
still believe that they can't. Everyone should get the opportunity
for a higher education simply because we know it reduces crime. For
this type of population, if they don't get educated, then they have
no choices."

'We need to rehab people'

Originally, students were not asked about drug use as a condition for
federal aid. But Congress adopted the change in 1998, based on a
proposal from Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., to establish a minimum
one-year suspension of aid, mirroring other federal assistance
programs. Souder said he never meant to penalize students for
transgressions that occurred while they were not enrolled. He blamed
the mix-up on an overaggressive interpretation by the Clinton and
Bush administrations.

"I feel terrible that so many people didn't get their loan because of
a misapplication of the law," he said. "People need to go to school.
We need to rehab people who have problems in the past."

The issue has sparked a renewed call to eliminate the provision.
Washington, D.C.-based Students for Sensible Drug Policy say it's not
fair to single out drug users when murderers, arsonists and rapists
face no such restrictions. But a bill sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank,
D-Mass., that would repeal the language has gone nowhere.

In Delaware, the Legislature passed a resolution in 2004 urging
Congress and the president to repeal the "drug provision" measure of
1998. The main sponsor of the resolution, Rep. Melanie George
Marshall, D-Bear/Newark, could not be reached.

Rep. Helene Keeley, D-Wilmington South, one of the resolution's
co-sponsors, said she's unsure whether legislators will try to change
state-aid regulations to match this new provision. She said she plans
to revisit the issue in the near future.

"I think the change is a step in the right direction, because if
someone is in college and gets messed up on drugs -- even the
smallest thing -- it could be from peer pressure, and the next thing
they know the place is being busted," she said. "That whole kid's
life is completely down the drain."

Keeley added that it's not fair to discriminate against someone
enrolled in college, as opposed to high school. She said the entire
law affecting convicted drug addicts should be repealed.

"I'm working on what we can do on the state level that can change the
ability of felons to get jobs, especially recovering drug addicts,"
she said. "Education would end up being a major component revolving
around that. Not only can they not get a job, but if they can't get
an education, then it's even more difficult."

Not a big issue in Delaware

Maureen Laffey, director of the Delaware Higher Education Commission,
said the state piggybacks on federal law, per the statute. "We follow
the federal methodology, whether it be a drug conviction or other
eligibility requirements."

She said the drug provision has not been a big issue in Delaware and
she has not received any phone calls from students saying they were
denied state aid because of a drug conviction.

Stephanie Symons, executive director of Stand Up for What Is Right
and Just, a statewide grass-roots effort dedicated to reforming
Delaware's criminal justice system, said ex-offenders not being able
to get student loans is a problem.

"Ideally, what you want when someone is released from jail is not to
reoffend, but become productive members of society," Symons said.
"What happens is, when you put in barriers, such as not being able to
get student aid, it makes it even more difficult for them to do that."