Pubdate: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 Source: Advocate (CO Edu) Copyright: 2005 Advocate Contact: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3964 Website: http://www.ucdadvocate.com Author: Chris Yonker Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hea.htm (Higher Education Act) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) Cited: Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) FIGHTING DRUG CONVICTIONS' EFFECT ON FINANCIAL AID Fighting Drug Convictions' Effect On Financial Aid The Students for Sensible Drug Policy has recently called into question a provision of the Higher Education Act that bans potential college students with drug convictions from receiving government financial aid. That financial aid ban hurts the drug offender in the long term as well as the short term, said campaign Director Tom Angell, because college students are less likely to use drugs than high school students. The ban keeps many qualified people out of college who otherwise would have graduated and contributed to society afterwards, he said. A report recently released by the Government Accountability Office supports Angell's argument. Since the financial aid ban went into effect in 1998, 175,000 applicants who filled out the Federal Application For Student Aid form were denied at least one year of federal loans because of their drug convictions. That figure does not take into account the number of people who started to fill out the form and noticed that they could not receive financial aid if they had a drug conviction and did not send the FAFSA form in because of it, Angell said. "This ban greatly hurts our nation's economy," he said. However, a relatively small percentage of applicants are affected, said Laurie Ekstrand, director of homeland security and justice at GAO. The ban is not a lifetime ban for those with one or two drug convictions, Ekstrand said - it lasts one year for one drug conviction and two years for two convictions. After that, the ban turns into a lifetime ban. Although the report and its information is solid, Ekstrand said, the report was not comprehensive. "We carefully pieced pieces to put our report together," Ekstrand said. The group could not look at how many drug offenders reapplied for federal aid after a one-or two-year ban or of which type of drug offense applicants were convicted, Ekstrand said. The information to correlate these and denial of financial aid was simply not there, she said. Financial aid for college is not the only federal benefit that is denied by the law because of drug convictions. Offenders also are denied Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money, food stamps and federally assisted house grants, according to the report. However, Ohio and several other states chose to opt-out of some bans including TANF, food stamps and house grants, leaving only the financial aid ban intact. Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, Angell said. The reauthorization has passed committee and might be dealt with by the end of the month. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D