Pubdate: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 Source: Recorder, The (CT Edu) Copyright: 2007 The Recorder Contact: http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4579 Author: Melissa Traynor Cited: Students for Sensible Drug Policy http://www.ssdp.org Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?219 (Students for Sensible Drug Policy) 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/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana) DRUG PENALTY HINDERS HIGHER EDUCATION In its campaign for revised laws for students convicted with drug charges, the Students for Sensible Drug Policy group is taking on the Aid Elimination Penalty. The AEP under the Higher Education Act, which was signed into legislation by Congress in 1988, requires that students who apply for federal aid must reveal past drug convictions. SSDP is asking for a full removal of the AEP. According to the SSDP's report titled Harmful Drug Law Hits Home, "the Aid Elimination Penalty automatically strips financial aid from students with any drug conviction, including misdemeanor marijuana possession." The SSDP says that "affected students have already been dealt with by the criminal justice system. Taking away their access to education after they've already paid their debt to society is unnecessary. This violates the 'double jeopardy' clause of the Fifth Amendment." In addition, the AEP is said to deny the individual who is looking to rectify his or her past by disqualifying them to receive aid for an education. In terms of aid offered by the federal government, 2,242 applicants in the state of Connecticut were turned away due to drug convictions out of the total 804,689 who applied, according to numbers by the United States Department of Education. Connecticut is tied with North Carolina for the sixth highest rate of rejections and both states follow Indiana, California, Oregon, Washington and Rhode Island. The CT Department of Higher Education says that 90 percent of state financial aid is administered by individual colleges and universities which means that the decisions to accept or reject applicants are in the hands of their schools. At CCSU Bursar's website on which tax credits for tuitions are listed, one out of three specify restrictions based on drug convictions. Under the eligibility requirements for the Hope credit, "students convicted of a federal or state drug felony before the end of 2006 are not eligible for the credit." "Students with a felony have not been eligible to apply most of the time, as in nine times out of ten," said an employee at the Financial Aid Office at CCSU. The employee also said that decisions on a student's eligibility are made through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is a division of the Department of Education. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake