Pubdate: Sun, 15 Jul 2001
Source: Log Cabin Democrat (AR)
Copyright: The Log Cabin Democrat
Contact:  http://thecabin.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/548
Author: Arlene Levinson - AP National Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hea.htm (Higher Education Act)

COLLEGE AID MAY DISAPPEAR FOR MORE THAN 34,000 WITH DRUG CONVICTIONS

A ban on giving federal aid to college students with drug convictions could 
mean more than 34,000 people will be denied loans and grants in the coming 
school year -- more than triple those turned away in 2000-01. The increase 
reflects a clarification in the U.S. Education Department's aid 
application, which screens for people with drug records. But the change has 
brought louder protests against the law: Even the measure's author says 
enforcement has been taken too far.

U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, an Indiana Republican, intended the aid ban to apply 
only to college students already getting loans or grants when convicted, an 
aide said. Instead, education officials in the Clinton administration and 
now under President Bush are denying aid to people with previous drug 
convictions. Souder is trying to get them to change their enforcement 
efforts to match his intent, said Angela Flood, Souder's chief of staff. 
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has introduced a bill seeking the law's 
repeal. Repeal is also the aim of the fledgling Students for Sensible Drug 
Policy and its 140 campus chapters.

Higher education leaders are protesting, too. The law is "fundamentally 
flawed," and amounts to "double punishment" -- and bias -- against low-and 
middle-income students who must undergo screening while their wealthier 
peers do not, the head of the American Council on Education wrote in May to 
U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark. Hutchinson is Bush's nominee to run the 
Drug Enforcement Administration. The council is "concerned that this 
provision will prove to be an insurmountable obstacle to far too many 
students, causing many of them to abandon their hope of a college 
education," Ikenberry wrote on behalf of 13 groups, including the nation's 
major associations of colleges and universities.

The education agency is only doing what Congress asked, said Lindsey 
Kozberg, Education Department spokeswoman.

"Consistent with the department's overall position, we seek applications 
from students that are complete and accurate, so we can provide aid to as 
many eligible students as possible," she said.

The law, approved in 1998, bars federal grants, work-study money and 
U.S.-backed and subsidized student loans to anyone convicted of selling or 
possessing drugs.

For a first drug-possession offense, ineligibility lasts a year after 
conviction; for a second offense, two years. More convictions bar aid 
indefinitely.

The law is tougher on traffickers. A single drug sale conviction means aid 
ineligibility for two years; more than that and the ban is indefinite. Aid 
can be restored if a student undergoes drug rehabilitation.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager