Pubdate: Mon, 27 Mar 2006
Source: Washington Square News (New York U, NY Edu)
Copyright: 2006 Washington Square News
Contact:  http://www.nyunews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1621
Author: Joshua Burd, Staff Writer
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n000/a436.html
Cited: American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/
Cited: Students for Sensible Drug Policy http://www.daregeneration.com
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hea.htm (Higher Education Act)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?219 (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?247 (Crime Policy - United States)

ACLU FIGHTS GOV'T AID RULE

A students rights organization filed a lawsuit last week challenging
the constitutionality of a federal law that strips students of
financial aid if they are convicted of drug offenses while receiving
the funding.

The Students for Sensible Drug Policy, represented by the American
Civil Liberties Union, is contesting the "aid elimination
provision"  of the Higher Education Act that has denied aid to nearly
200,000 students since 2000.

The Higher Education Act was established in the 1960s under President
Lyndon B. Johnson to increase access to and affordability of higher
education. The drug provision was added when President Bill Clinton
reauthorized the act in 1998.

"This is another manifestation of an unfair, irrational and unjust
law that's intended to harm people who have a drug conviction,"
said Adam Wolf, a staff attorney with the ACLU Drug Law Reform
Project. "The law is ineffective at deterring drug use, it hurts
working class Americans and it's a barrier to education."

The lawsuit, SSDP v. Spellings, was filed last Wednesday in federal
court in South Dakota. The complaint names U.S. Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings as a defendant -- the person officially responsible
for implementing the act's aid elimination provision. The three
named plaintiffs are students who lost their aid after drug
convictions.

The ACLU's complaint asserts that the law violates the Fifth
Amendment's due process clause on the grounds that it singles out a
class of individuals who have a drug conviction. It also contends that
denying aid to convicted students violates the double jeopardy clause,
punishing students who were already sentenced by the courts.

Wolf said the law affects students across the country and often at
schools with high tuition costs. Many convicted students who lose
their financial aid are also undocumented because they chose to stop
receiving financial aid before they're officially denied, he said.

"[Statistics don't] include people who have to drop out because
they know that they're not eligible and don't call the financial
administrator to say, "'This is the reason why,' "  he said.

Last month Congress passed a measure that reinstated eligibility to
some of the affected students, removing a provision of the law that
denies aid to those convicted before entering college.

But what remains of the law will still continue to strip tens of
thousands of students of their financial aid, said Tom Angell,
campaign director for Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

"The legislative reform is pretty irrelevant to the litigation that
we launched this week,"  he said. "All of the plaintiffs in the
lawsuit wouldn't be helped by the scaling back of the law in
Congress."

Before finding plaintiffs for the case, the group had tried to work
with Congress to strike down the entire law, but had little success,
Angell said.

"Unfortunately, up until now they've been unwilling to do so, so
we're sort of branching out our efforts,"  he said. "[But]
we're going to continue to work with Congress and try to get them to
do the right thing and aid the students."

Angell said there is a strong chance that NYU students are affected by
the law.

"oeOn any campus that students rely on financial aid to go to college,
this law is having a disastrous effect,"  he said.

About 63 percent of all students in the U.S. relied on federal
financial aid during the 2003-2004 academic year, according to the
Department of Education. Federal financial aid includes Pell Grants,
Perkins Loans, Stafford Loans, Federal Educational Opportunity Grants
and work-study programs.

In a Dec. 6, 2005 WSN article, Alicia Hurley, NYU's assistant vice
president for government and community relations, said she could not
confirm that any NYU students are affected by the provision.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake