Drug felonies shouldn’t close doors to education

Murder and rape are pretty heinous crimes, but according to the
U.S. Congress, felony drug possession is the absolute worst of the
worst.

At least, that’s the message we can glean from a provision
in the Higher Education Act, which bars students who have been
convicted of possessing or selling drugs from receiving federal
financial aid or student loans. The law, which was inserted into
the Higher Education Act in 1998, has recently drawn fire from
Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the American Civil Liberties
Union, both of which say they want it repealed.

According to the law, students who answer “yes” to a
question on federal financial aid forms that asks whether they have
ever been convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs can be
rendered ineligible to receive money. Students who have been
convicted of selling or possessing drugs once or twice are
ineligible for one to two years, but three-time offenders are
ineligible for life. Since 2000, about 200,000 federal aid
applicants have been denied money because of the law.

What’s mind-boggling about this is that it makes
eligibility for federal financial aid hinge on one blot on a
criminal record. Given the broad swath of serious crimes one could
be convicted of ““ possession of firearms, manslaughter, rape
““ the fact that possession of drugs is the one singled out to
be the determinant factor seems dangerously arbitrary.

Under this provision, a student with a hefty rap sheet who had
never used or possessed drugs could conceivably fill out a
financial aid form with few hurdles, whereas a student who had one
count of drug possession could get tripped up before even applying
to college.

Indirectly, this law is suggesting that someone who, say, made
an innocent mistake a year ago and experimented with drugs is less
deserving of an education than a hardened criminal. And
that’s not true. They’re both equally deserving.

So why discourage them? Education is the great equalizer, a
cornerstone of what it takes to build up ““ or rebuild ““
a life.

Moreover, a report called “Falling Through the
Cracks” found that 24 states deny state-based financial aid
to people who are disqualified from receiving federal aid, which
means people in almost half the country who have drug convictions
lose out on a more local source of financial aid too. Problem
compounded.

There is evidence to suggest that even a three-time drug
offender can reform through education, if given the chance.

The Drug Reform Coordination Network, a group dedicated to
drug-law reform, has started dispensing scholarships to students,
some of them former drug addicts, who were denied federal aid
because of the law. In 2004, the organization dispensed eight
scholarships, ranging from $600 to $2,000, and all the recipients
were students in good standing with their schools and never had a
repeat conviction.

The author of the law, Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., claimed he
never intended for it to deny aid to students who might be trying
to redeem past crimes by going to college. He’s tried
introducing legislation that would only apply the law to students
who are convicted of drug possession while in college, but it has
met with little support.

Total repeal might be the only way to mend this broken law.
Because if the goal here is to teach people how drug use is not the
best choice they can make, wouldn’t you want education to be
one of the last avenues to which you close them off ““ not the
first?