Pubdate: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 Source: Westerly Sun, The (RI) Copyright: 2005 The Westerly Sun Contact: http://www.thewesterlysun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2363 Author: The Associated Press STUDENTS URGE REPEAL OF LAW DENYING EDUCATION AID TO DRUG CONVICTS PROVIDENCE - Some Brown University students joined others across the country Thursday to protest a federal law denying college financial aid to applicants convicted of drug offenses. The Higher Education Act is up for reauthorization this year, and both the House and Senate have proposed legislation loosening, but not eliminating, the ban on federal aid for drug offenders. Wearing graduation gowns and standing before cardboard jail bars, six members of Students for Sensible Drug Policy handed out fliers and urged passers-by on the Brown Campus to tell their senators and representatives to vote against the ban. "I think the kids who are hurt by this are the ones who really need a college education to break out," said Ariel Werner, a freshman who was supposed to represent a prisoner. "Instead of getting rid of drug use, they push people who use them to the borders of society." Less than one-half of one percent of students who applied for federal financial aid during the academic years 2001-2002 and 2003-2004 reported a drug conviction that made them ineligible for aid, according to a report by the General Accounting Office. GAO researchers estimated that during those two academic years, the law probably prevented between 17,000 and 20,000 prospective students from receiving federal grants. The same study concluded that between 29,000 and 41,000 students were ineligible for federal student loans. Matthew Palevsky, 20, said the ban disproportionately affected the poor - a group, he said, not well represented on the Ivy League campus. He said middle and upper-class students convicted of drug crimes don't necessarily need federal financial aid to attend college. "It's a political wedge issue that been raised in every political campaign," he said. Palevsky questioned why the ban only applied to drug addicts. "You could have raped someone, killed someone and you still get financial aid from our government," he said. Asa Hutchinson, the former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, called for loosening the ban earlier this month. A spokesman for Rep. Mark Souder, an Indiana Republican who originally sponsored the amendment, also calls the current ban a mistake. Souder's intent in filing the 1998 amendment was to halt financial aid to students convicted of a drug offense while still in college. Souder blames the Clinton administration for interpreting the law too broadly, said spokesman Martin Green. "He's been fighting since then to have it changed," Green said. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman