8,903 HOOSIERS REFUSED LOANS UNDER DRUG LAW

WASHINGTON - Drug offenses, or refusal to answer questions about
possible convictions, booted 8,903 Hoosier applicants out of
contention for federal financial aid for college in the past six
academic years, about one out of every 200 requests for grants or loans.

Students who are convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs can
lose all or part of their eligibility for the $67 million federal pool
for grants, loans and work-study assistance under legislation written
in the 1990s by Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd.

According to Department of Education statistics released Thursday by
Students for Sensible Drug Policy, which has fought the Souder
provisions since they were enacted, Hoosier students applied 1.7
million times since 2000 for federally backed financial aid for their
college studies. Of those applications, 8,903 were fully or partly
ineligible for aid because they had been convicted of a drug offense
or refused to answer questions about possible convictions. Applicants
who don't answer are automatically ineligible for federal scholarships
and loans.

Because students apply for loans and grants each academic year, the
1.7 million figure does not refer to 1.7 million individual students.
But the 8,903 figure represents separate individuals, according to Tom
Angell, spokesman for Students for Sensible Drug Policy, because "it's
unlikely that someone denied aid for X period of time would reapply
before their eligibility was reinstated, knowing they'd just be denied
again."

For a first drug-possession offense, ineligibility lasts a year after
conviction; for a second offense, two years. More convictions bar aid
indefinitely. A single drug sale conviction means no aid for two years
afterward; more convictions, and the ban lasts indefinitely. The
legislation was changed late last year so that only those convicted of
drug offenses while they are enrolled in college lose
eligibility.

The Department of Education has regularly released information about
how many people were affected by the law, but the agency has not
released state-by-state information. Students for Sensible Drug Policy
sued to obtain the information.

According to the data, 189,065 applicants were completely or partly
ineligible for aid since the law went into effect with the 2000-01
academic year, about one of every 400 applicants.

The Education Department's "numbers do not reveal how many students
were deterred from even applying for financial aid because they saw
the drug question on the (financial aid application) and assumed -
correctly or incorrectly - that they were ineligible," according to
Students for Sensible Drug Policy. "There is also no way to tell how
many applicants falsely answered the question, since the Department of
Education has no mechanism for catching students who lie. Thus, an
indeterminate number of students are getting financial aid that they
aren't legally eligible for because they refuse to admit to their past
convictions" on the application form.