DRUG USE SHOULDN'T BLOCK COLLEGE

Over the past seven years, more than 160,000 would-be college students
have had the doors to education slammed shut in their faces.

Our federal lawmakers, including Maine's Sens. Susan Collins and
Olympia Snowe, hold in their hands the key to unlocking those doors
for thousands of Mainers. Students around the state need them to act
swiftly.

The problem stems from a little-known 1998 amendment to the federal
Higher Education Act that suspends financial aid eligibility to
students with any drug convictions, including misdemeanor possession
of marijuana.

While the provision was apparently intended to discourage drug abuse,
it's hard to imagine how pulling students out of school is supposed to
keep them away from drugs and out of the criminal justice system.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons reports that receiving at least two
years of higher education reduces the likelihood of repeat offenses
from a national rate of 60 percent to only 10 percent.

It is simply counterproductive to throw at-risk young people out of
school, where they will be much more likely to break the law again and
continue to drain our law enforcement resources.

But perhaps even worse than the increase in crime provoked by this law
is the decrease in societal productivity it causes. We know from 2000
Census data that, on average, college graduates earn $19,100 more per
year than those with only a high school diploma.

Multiply that difference by the 160,586 students declared ineligible
for aid under this policy, and we see the devastating $3.1 billion
earnings loss our economy incurs every year as a consequence of this
law.

There are numerous other problems with the law. For example, students
affected by the provision have already been punished through the
criminal justice system. Universities also generally discipline or
expel students who break campus drug policies.

Do we now want to ensure that they can't reform themselves by
stripping them of access to education altogether? Are we moving toward
a one-strike-and-three-outs policy? What has happened to our ability
to forgive and grant a second chance?

Furthermore, since there are already minimum GPA requirements for
receiving financial aid, the drug provision only affects students who
are doing well in school.

And, because of racial profiling and the discriminatory enforcement of
drug laws, minorities are being kept out of school at a higher rate
than the general population. The law further perpetuates societal
problems such as discrimination and poverty, particularly among minorities.

In January, the congressionally appointed Advisory Committee on
Student Financial Assistance recommended that Congress remove the drug
question from the financial aid application, calling it "irrelevant"
to aid eligibility.

To that end, the Removing Impediments to Students' Education Act was
introduced in the U.S. House in March and now has 67 co-sponsors. If
passed, the RISE Act will repeal the drug provision and reinstate
financial aid to students trying to turn their lives around.

But no companion bill has yet been introduced in the U.S. Senate. By
introducing a version of the RISE Act in the Senate, Sens. Collins and
Snowe could help students rise above their past legal troubles and put
their lives back on track.