Pubdate: Mon, 27 Mar 2006
Source: GW Hatchet (George Washington U, DC Edu)
Copyright: 2006 The GW Hatchet
Contact:  http://www.gwhatchet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/757
Author: Alexandra Aaron
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)

U.S. TO RELEASE STATS ON STUDENT DRUG VIOLATORS

The U.S. Department of Education has agreed to release a demographic
breakdown of the 200,000 students denied federal aid due to drug
convictions, settling a lawsuit filed last month by the advocacy group
Students for a Sensible Drug Policy.

"This is a huge victory," said Tom Angell, SSDP's campaigns director.
"We're very excited."

The settlement is the latest development in the group's campaign to
rescind a law that prevents students with drug convictions from
receiving federal aid.

Under a 1998 provision of the Higher Education Act, students who have
been convicted for the illegal sale or possession of drugs under state
or federal law can be declared ineligible to receive student financial
aid, according to the government's federal student aid Web site.

About one year ago, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy requested
under the Freedom of Information Act that the Department of Education
release a "state-by-state breakdown" of students denied aid, according
to a statement by SSDP Executive Director Kris Krane.

The Department of Education initially asked SSDP to pay $4000 for the
information, but the federal agency agreed to waive the fee when the
student group threatened to challenge it in court.

The Department of Education declined to comment on the
settlement.

"The government thought they could intimidate us ... they had no other
choice but to give (us the information)," Angell said.

But another lawsuit remains to be decided that challenges the
constitutionality of the drug conviction amendment to the Higher
Education Act.

The amendment, altered in January of this year, applies only to
students who were convicted while receiving federal aid.

The undecided lawsuit, filed in February by SSDP and the American
Civil Liberties Union, said that the drug provision "interferes with
the objectives of drug treatment, drug prevention, and criminal
rehabilitation by denying a higher education - and its attendant
economic benefits - to those convicted of drug offenses."

The lawsuit cites three examples of upstanding college students denied
federal aid because of their drug convictions, declares the law to be
unconstitutional for violating the Constitution's "double jeopardy"
and "due process" clauses, and asks that the Department of Education
cease denying federal aid to these students. Leaders of SSDP said that
they plan to use the demographic information on student drug violators
denied aid, which the government said it will release before the end
of March, to argue for repealing the Higher Education Act's drug provision.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and 69 co-sponsors recently introduced a
bill in Congress that would rescind the drug provision.

"After we have received the information from the Department of
Education we're going to have to go to Congress to show them how much
this law affects their own constituents," Angell said. "The government
is on notice now that students won't allow them to cover [this] up."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake