Pubdate: Fri, 03 Nov 2000
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, The (US)
Copyright: 2000 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
Contact:  1255 23rd Street, N.W., Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20037
Fax: (202) 452-1033
Website: http://chronicle.com/
Author: Jennifer Yachnin

DRUG CONVICTIONS COST ALMOST 7,000 STUDENTS ELIGIBILITY FOR AID

Almost 7,000 of the nine million students who applied for federal aid 
for this fall are ineligible for some or all of the financial support 
because of recent convictions for drug-related offenses, according to 
the Education Department.

Aides to Rep. Mark E. Souder, Republican of Indiana, who drafted the 
legislation barring aid to students with drug convictions, said he 
was surprised that the number was so low. But Education Department 
officials said the statistics matched their expectations.

"Justice Department figures tell us that roughly 1 percent of the 
U.S. population have a drug conviction, so it would follow roughly 
that 1 percent of the people who apply for aid would have a drug 
conviction to report," said Karen Freeman, a spokeswoman for the 
Education Department's Office of Student Financial Assistance 
Programs.

The 2000-1 academic year is the first in which students with 
drug-related convictions can become ineligible for federal aid. The 
law denies aid to students recently convicted in state or federal 
court of possessing or selling illicit drugs.

About 10 million students apply for federal aid each year; as of 
October 15, the Education Department had processed about 8.6 million 
applications for this year.

Department statistics show that under the drug-conviction provision, 
1,311 applicants have been ruled ineligible for aid, and an 
additional 5,617 applicants must complete a waiting period before 
they become eligible. Applicants can lose all or some of their 
federal aid in a given academic year, depending on the date of 
conviction, when the suspension begins. Any students convicted in 
December, for example, could regain eligibility for the second 
semester of the last year of the suspension.

Eligibility may be suspended for one year for a first conviction on a 
drug-possession charge; two years for a second conviction; and 
indefinitely for a third. A student can regain eligibility by 
completing a drug-rehabilitation program or by winning a reversal of 
the conviction or having it set aside.

Marisa Garcia, a freshman at California State University at 
Fullerton, lost part of her financial aid after she was convicted of 
misdemeanor possession of marijuana in March. She paid a $415 fine 
after being ticketed for the offense in January. Before that, she 
said, "I'd never gotten in any sort of trouble at all."

"I got my punishment, I got my fine, and then I found out they're 
probably going to take away my aid," Ms. Garcia said. "Without that 
financial aid, I can't afford to go to school."

While she considered enrolling in a rehabilitation program, Ms. 
Garcia said she could not afford the fee. Instead, she has sought 
other forms of financial aid and has doubled the number of hours she 
works at a part-time job.

"Drug programs aren't really an option for people," Ms. Garcia said. 
"If they can't afford to put themselves through school on their own, 
I doubt they can afford a drug-rehab program that costs hundreds of 
dollars."

David Borden, executive director of the Drug Reform Coordination 
Network, which works to liberalize drug-sentencing rules and other 
drug policies, said he believes that "the vast majority of students" 
with drug convictions have elected not to answer the drug question on 
the Free Application for Student Aid.

"The only students who are losing aid now are the students who told 
the complete truth and volunteered the information," he said.

Nearly 275,000 applicants have yet to answer whether they have ever 
been convicted of a drug offense, despite being pressed by the 
Education Department to respond.

At first, more than 790,000 applicants failed to answer the question. 
Department officials allowed aid administrators to award aid this 
year to those who left the question blank, but warned those students 
to alert the department to any drug convictions, or else risk 
penalties for lying on their forms.

"We determined early on that many people who don't answer the 
question feel it doesn't pertain to them, or don't understand the 
question or forget to answer it," said Ms. Freeman, the department 
spokeswoman.

The Education Department has reworded the question for next year's 
aid application. The new yes-or-no entry states, "Do not leave this 
question blank."

Susan D. Little, associate director of operations for student 
financial aid at the University of Georgia, called the new format a 
welcome change. "We certainly expect the accuracy of the answers to 
increase," she said.

Groups including the Drug Reform Coordination Network and the 
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws oppose the 
drug provision and advise students on how to respond to the question.

But officials of both groups say they don't tell students to leave 
any section of the application blank.

"Most of these students lament that they are being singled out in a 
feckless war on some drugs," said Allen F. St. Pierre, executive 
director of the NORML Foundation. "These same students could 
binge-drink to death or smoke themselves blue in the face with 
tobacco, and yet they would not be denied a student loan for engaging 
in that kind of activity."

Congress imposed the drug-conviction provision in renewing the Higher 
Education Act in 1998.
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