DRUGS DENY AID

Past Convictions Haunt Some

In America, we laud ourselves on the attainability of higher education
by every one of our citizens. As a society we encourage the
continuation of education, provide low-interest loans to subsidize the
high cost, and push social programs designed to enlighten high-risk
youths of the advantages of a college degree. You can, however, lose
your eligibility for financial aid.

A provision of the Higher Education Act denies financial aid to
students with drug convictions. The act has been criticized by several
health, legal and education organizations, including the American
Public Health Association, the Association for Addiction
Professionals, the American Federation of Teachers and the American
Bar Association.

This issue again has been brought to the forefront by a recent lawsuit
filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Students for a
Sensible Drug Policy against the United States Department of Education
Secretary Margaret Spellings. The suit accuses Spellings of violating
students' rights under the Due Process Clause by "singling out , for
denial of financial aid, the category of individuals with a controlled
substance conviction."

The lawsuit also argues that that the act violates the Fifth
Amendment's double jeopardy clause which prevents multiple punishment
for the same offense. As a society, do we want to rehabilitate, or
merely punish to punish, when someone has broken the law?

Education itself, however, promotes rehabilitation. Denying a student
money to go to college does nothing to promote the betterment of this
person's situation, to further his rehabilitation, or to encourage his
assimilation into society as a productive, taxpaying citizen.

Roadblocks to education are counterproductive to the policy of
education for all that we pride ourselves on in America. If you deny
someone who has been convicted of a drug offense from financial aid,
there is a higher chance that person will not go back to school.

The policy does nothing to promote rehabilitation or education. It is
merely retroactive, and focuses on a person's past conviction with no
productive plan for a person's future. Drug offenders with aspirations
for higher education are people that want to go back to school and put
past convictions - for which they already served their punishment -
behind them so that they might prepare for the future. Without
financial aid, most students would not be at a university. Denying aid
does not help these students and does not help society.

The current policy articulated in the Higher Education Act prevents
people from attaining education, something that, as a country, we have
always believed to the best way to empower an individual and create a
skilled, productive citizen.