STUDENT AID RULE PUT UNDER REVIEW

Critics Of A Rule Used To Ban Financial Aid To Students With Drug
Convictions Say It Punishes Only Those Who Want To Improve Their Lives.

LECANTO - If a college student is convicted of drunken driving or
assault, his eligibility for financial aid is not affected. But if
he's caught smoking a joint, a little-known provision of the Higher
Education Act allows the government to deny financial aid.

More than 160,000 students have been refused aid since the provision
was enacted in 2000, according to a coalition of groups working to repeal it.

Today, the Congressional Committee on Education and the Workforce
will consider changing the law as part of this year's reauthorization
of the Higher Education Act. Even its original proponents say it may
be time to scale back.

Others want an outright repeal.

"It's contrary to every theory of rehabilitation," said Elizabeth
Osmond, an assistant public defender in Hernando County who has
signed a national petition to repeal the drug provision. "We want
people to be productive, and when they're doing drugs, we want them
to get jobs and get education."

Under the law, students who apply for federal aid must indicate
whether they have ever been convicted of possessing or selling drugs.

"The logic is quite simple," said Martin Green, a spokesman for Rep.
Mark Souder, R-Indiana, who in 1998 introduced the bill that included
the drug penalty. "Students who receive taxpayers' dollars to go to
college have a responsibility to obey the law even if they don't
agree with it."

The penalty imposed depends on the crime. A first offense for
possession of a controlled substance, for example, can result in one
year of ineligibility. A second offense for sale of a controlled
substance can make a student ineligible indefinitely.

That seems unfair to James Strickland, 24, who is serving a
nine-month sentence at the Citrus County Detention Facility for
possession and sale of marijuana. He plans to apply to college when
he is released.

A Citrus High School dropout, Strickland spent "countless hours" in
jail studying for his GED exam before finding out about the drug
provision. Under the current law, Strickland, who is still awaiting
the results of his GED exam, can have federal aid denied for two years.

"It's going to make things a lot harder for me," said Strickland, who
hopes to get a degree in chemistry and eventually work for the
Environmental Protection Agency. "They have to let people start
bettering their lives instead of having the same old routine of
selling drugs and selling more drugs."

Souder never meant for the law to apply to people like Strickland,
Green said. Souder wants a change, and the committee will consider a
narrowing of the provision today.

In the revised version, the provision would apply only to students
who are convicted of drug crimes while they are receiving aid, Green said.

Students who have drug convictions in their pasts would no longer be penalized.

"Mr. Souder very much believes in repentance," Green said.

Others want the provision killed entirely.

Reps. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., Danny Davis, D-Ill., and Dennis Kucinich,
D-Ohio, are expected to introduce an amendment to fully repeal the
drug penalty in today's committee session.

The committee will send its proposed reforms to the full House for a vote.

Critics of the drug law have a range of objections. Civil liberties
groups argue that the provision unfairly targets minorities, who
account for a disproportionate number of drug convictions. Social
workers and medical officials worry that the provision keeps drug
offenders from getting their lives back on track.

"For people who are having a hard time with their lives, this is
discouragement at exactly the time when they've decided to try," said
David Borden, executive director of the Drug Reform Coordination Network.

More than 200 organizations, including the ACLU, the NAACP, the
American Council on Education and the American Public Health
Association, have endorsed a full repeal of the provision. More than
115 student groups, including the Florida Student Association and the
student governments at several Florida universities, have taken the
same position.

"Opposition has built tremendously," Borden said.

But the debate isn't over. Supporters of the provision are offering
no apology for the law.

"If you're in college and you get a federal assistance loan to go to
college, you're old enough at that point to understand that your
behaviors have consequences," said Sue Thau, a public policy
consultant for the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. "It's
not like there's any inalienable right to use drugs. It's illegal
behavior. Why are we paying for people to go to college if they're
going to addle their brains with drugs and alcohol?"

For Strickland, there's nothing to do but wait - for his GED results,
his release, and for Congress to rule on the law.

Strickland is optimistic about passing his GED exam, though he had
his jail Bible study group pray for him just in case. He already is
planning the next step, thinking about going back to work in air
conditioning so he can pay his way through school.

"There's nothing that's going to stop me," he said. "When my heart
and mind are set, they're set. I'm going to find a way to pay for
school and it's not going to be by selling drugs. I'm through with that."