DRUG PENALTY HINDERS HIGHER EDUCATION

In its campaign for revised laws for students convicted with drug
charges, the Students for Sensible Drug Policy group is taking on the
Aid Elimination Penalty.

The AEP under the Higher Education Act, which was signed into
legislation by Congress in 1988, requires that students who apply for
federal aid must reveal past drug convictions. SSDP is asking for a
full removal of the AEP.

According to the SSDP's report titled Harmful Drug Law Hits Home, "the
Aid Elimination Penalty automatically strips financial aid from
students with any drug conviction, including misdemeanor marijuana
possession."

The SSDP says that "affected students have already been dealt with by
the criminal justice system. Taking away their access to education
after they've already paid their debt to society is unnecessary. This
violates the 'double jeopardy' clause of the Fifth Amendment."

In addition, the AEP is said to deny the individual who is looking to
rectify his or her past by disqualifying them to receive aid for an
education.

In terms of aid offered by the federal government, 2,242 applicants in
the state of Connecticut were turned away due to drug convictions out
of the total 804,689 who applied, according to numbers by the United
States Department of Education.

Connecticut is tied with North Carolina for the sixth highest rate of
rejections and both states follow Indiana, California, Oregon,
Washington and Rhode Island.

The CT Department of Higher Education says that 90 percent of state
financial aid is administered by individual colleges and universities
which means that the decisions to accept or reject applicants are in
the hands of their schools.

At CCSU Bursar's website on which tax credits for tuitions are listed,
one out of three specify restrictions based on drug convictions. Under
the eligibility requirements for the Hope credit, "students convicted
of a federal or state drug felony before the end of 2006 are not
eligible for the credit."

"Students with a felony have not been eligible to apply most of the
time, as in nine times out of ten," said an employee at the Financial
Aid Office at CCSU.

The employee also said that decisions on a student's eligibility are
made through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is a
division of the Department of Education.