DRUG LAW CUTS OFF STUDENT AID

3,000 In State Denied Funding, Release Shows

Nearly 3,000 Wisconsin students have been denied financial aid for
college under a federal law that remains controversial even as it
undergoes reform.

The law prohibits people who have been convicted of selling or
possessing drugs from receiving Pell Grants and other forms of
federal financial aid. Since 2000, it has been used to refuse
assistance to more than 189,000 needy students, including 2,897 in
Wisconsin, according to a state-by-state breakdown released for the
first time by the U.S. Department of Education.

Wisconsin legislators are pushing for a state version of the law,
arguing that college students with drug offenses are undeserving of
any form of taxpayer aid.

But critics say the federal law amounts to double jeopardy, and that
children from low-income families are being denied the right to
pursue a higher education.

"It's really unfair," said Nathan Bush, a junior at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, who is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit
challenging the law.

The Kenosha native, whose parents are public school teachers, stands
to lose thousands of dollars in federal aid after pleading guilty in
January to a misdemeanor charge of possessing marijuana. He doesn't
know how he will be able to pay for his senior year.

"I'm from a working-class family," said Bush, who works two jobs.
"We're not going to be able to make up the slack."

Congress passed the federal law as an amendment to the Higher
Education Act in 1998. As a result, applications for federal
financial aid include this question: Has the student ever been
convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs?

It's a self-reporting system; according to the statistics released
by the U.S. Department of Education, more than 260,000 students left
the drug conviction question blank in 2000-'01 school year and had
their forms processed. Those who answer "yes" are sent an additional
worksheet that they must fill out.

Under the law, students are to be denied federal assistance if they
admit to being convicted in state or federal court. Convictions that
occurred before students turned 18 don't count unless they were
tried as an adult.

Students convicted of possession lose one year of assistance for
their first offense, two years for a second offense, and become
ineligible indefinitely for a third. A first-time conviction for
selling drugs makes a student ineligible for two years, the second
offense results in indefinite ineligibility. Drug offenders can
regain eligibility if they complete a federally recognized drug
treatment program.

The law, estimated to have cost students as much as $54 million in
Pell Grants and as much as $164 million in federal loans per year,
targets no other class of criminal behavior. Convicted rapists and
murderers are not denied aid.

More than 250 organizations have come out against it, including the
American Bar Association, the American Public Health Association,
the American Federation of Teachers and the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America. Opponents have argued that the law
prohibits drug offenders from improving their lives and serves
no benefit to society.

In response to criticism, Congress passed a measure in February that
limits ineligibility to only those students convicted of drug crimes
while receiving financial aid. It's a change that will be
implemented by the U.S. Department of Education starting
this summer, even though the measure was part of
broader legislation that is caught up in litigation due to
a technical mistake, said Jane Glickman, a department spokeswoman.

But Adam Wolf, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union,
said even with the revision to the law, "underlying injustice remains."

In a complaint filed in federal court in South Dakota last month,
the civil rights organization called for the law to be declared
unconstitutional on the grounds that it irrationally targets people
convicted of drug sentences and punishes these students for the same
crime twice. Bush of UW-Madison is one of three students named as plaintiffs.

The ACLU said access to higher education is being denied to those
with a drug conviction who are not sufficiently wealthy to pay for
college themselves. The law, it said, discriminates against racial
minority groups because U.S. Justice Department statistics
that show that African-Americans constitute 12% of the
U.S. population and 13% of drug users, but account for more than
62% of those convicted of drug offenses.

The U.S. Department of Education is reviewing the complaint,
according to a written statement released by Glickman, but the
agency appears to support the law.

"Congress sought to discourage illegal drug use by the nation's
youth by passing this restriction on federal student aid in 1998,"
the statement says. "The department supports Congress' efforts to
decrease illegal drug use, and protect the health and safety of all
our nation's students, from pre-school to adult."

State considers similar law

Last month, Wisconsin's state Assembly passed a bill that would deny
state-funded financial aid to college students convicted of
possessing or selling drugs. Similar bills in the state Senate have
not made it out of committee. Some senators said they prefer to wait
for the federal changes to be sorted out before passing a state
version of the law.

"We don't have enough state money to satisfy all the applications
for financial aid," said Rep. Eugene Hahn (R-Cambria) who authored
the Assembly bill. "This is a way to say that if you don't want to
play by the rules, we'll give your money to other people who need it."

The U.S. Department of Education released the state-by-state
breakdown of students affected by the federal law in response to a
public records request by Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a
non-profit organization made up people who have been or will be
denied financial aid under the law.

The group, which made the information public this week, hopes
legislators and the public will oppose the law once they discover
how it is affecting their state.

The department resisted releasing the numbers. At first, it tried to
charge the organization $4,000 for the information, dismissing
arguments that the information should be released for free because
it is in the public's interest and because Students for Sensible
Drug Policy have no commercial interest at stake.

"A review of contents of SSDP's campaign and the materials you
submitted in connection with your fee waiver request reveal that the
principal goal of your organization is to 'end the war on drugs,' "
the department told the organization in a letter dated September
2005. "As SSDP's campaign could directly benefit those who would
profit from the deregulation or legalization of drugs, I cannot
conclude, based on the information you have made available to me,
that SSDP has no commercial interest in the disclosure sought."

The department agreed to turn the numbers over free of charge only
after the organization retained legal counsel and threatened to sue.