Pubdate: Tue, 04 Apr 2006
Source: Oregon Daily Emerald (U of Oregon, OR Edu)
Copyright: 2006 Oregon Daily Emerald
Contact:  http://www.dailyemerald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1518
Author: Ed Oser
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hea.htm (Higher Education Act)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

FAFSA EXCLUSION POLICY SPARKS SUIT

A Group Is Suing To Change A Provision Denying Federal Aid To 
Students Convicted Of Drug Crimes

Question 31 of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a 
familiar document to more than half of the University's students, 
reads: "Have you ever been convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs?"

Students who answer yes to it don't get federal financial aid.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a national student group based in 
Washington, D.C., has filed a class action lawsuit challenging the 
provision of the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998 that has 
stripped federal financial aid from more than 150,000 students 
convicted of drug possession or distribution since it was enacted in 2000.

The lawsuit, filed on March 22, names U.S. Secretary of Education 
Margaret Spellings as the defendant.

The original author of the provision has blasted the lawsuit as 
nothing more than an "attention-getting device"  and said that the 
law is fair because it allows students to go through treatment to get 
federal aid back.

Ilona Koleszar, director of ASUO Legal Services, said the issue arose 
at the University 10 to 12 times winter term, but that none of the 
students involved have filed suit to retrieve their financial aid. 
The students, she said, were either leaving school, were wealthy 
enough not to rely on financial aid or have decided to deal with the 
costs of school as best they can.

In the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in South Dakota, 
SSDP alleges that the provision barring federal aid to convicted 
students is unconstitutional because it violates the Double Jeopardy 
and Due Process clauses of the Fifth Amendment.

In an interview, SSDP Executive Director Kris Krane said the law, 
beyond its unconstitutionality, currently forces students who rely on 
financial aid to leave school or take out loans with ludicrous 
interest rates that may cripple them upon graduation.

Krane also said the law is unfair because it focuses solely on 
students convicted of drug offenses. Students who commit any other 
crime, such as burglary, rape, assault or murder, can fill out their 
FAFSAs with a clean conscience and receive as much government subsidy 
as allowed by law, Krane said.

Martin Green, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who wrote 
the provision, called SSDP's allegations "the exact opposite of the truth."

"This lawsuit is nothing more than an attention-getting device," Green said.

The first conviction of possession, the law bars a student from 
receiving aid for one year. On the third conviction, the law suspends 
a student's rights indefinitely. A student convicted of selling drugs 
is ineligible for aid for two years after the first offense and 
indefinitely after the second offense.

Students who complete a rehabilitation program and submit to two 
unannounced drug tests will again receive access to aid regardless of 
their crime, Green said.

Green said that students who use drugs while on financial aid exploit 
the trust of the American taxpayer.

"The intent of the law,"  Green said, "is to discourage drug use and 
provide accountability to taxpayers."

The law is constitutional, he said, and does not punish students but 
encourages them to seek treatment.

Green said Souder is open to considering legislation that would strip 
financial aid to all students convicted of felonies.

Koleszar said that while students can get their federal aid back if 
they go through diversion, but the law is wrong and cruel in part 
because it "penalizes people for youthful acts."

According to the SSDP Web site, the group provides education on harms 
caused by the "War on Drugs"  and promotes "rational discussion of 
alternative solutions to our nation's drug problems." The site states 
that the group is non-violent, non-profit and neither condemns nor 
encourages drug use.

Spellings worked for six years as a senior advisor to then-Gov. 
George W. Bush in Texas, according to her online biography. During 
Busha€TMs first term she worked as an assistant to the president for 
domestic policy. The Senate confirmed her as the education secretary 
in January 2005.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman