A bill under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives would allow college students with certain drug convictions to receive financial aid.

The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, sponsored by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., aims to make higher education more accessible by making it easier to obtain a loan.

Under the current law, passed by Congress in 1998, students convicted of either sale, or possession, of drugs are ineligible to receive federal aid until they complete a rehabilitation program and pass two surprise drug tests. The new bill, which is expected to pass in the House, would allow financial aid for students with a possession conviction, but still deny those who sold drugs.

Reuben Weisfeld, a junior in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, would welcome new legislation.

‘I think people are able to separate recreation drugs and studying,’ Weisfeld said. ‘A lot of graduates, they have experience with drugs, but they’re productive members of society.’

Between 2000 and 2006, nearly 200,000 students with drug convictions filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and were denied aid, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics. That is about one in every 400 students. In New York, 8,962 students were denied funding in those years, more than in any other state besides California and Texas.

Those numbers count only students who marked on their FAFSAs that they had a drug conviction. It does not include students with drug convictions who did not complete the application at all.

Many of the rejected FAFSAs come from students entering college as freshmen, but others come from students that were convicted with a sale or possession of drugs, while at college, attempting to renew their aid packages.

At Syracuse University, the Office of Judicial Affairs handled 82 cases of illegal drug usage in fall 2008, according to its Spring 2009 report.

‘It’s certainly something we struggle with,’ said Cory Wallack, director of SU’s counseling center.

The university could not provide statistics showing the number of students denied financial aid because of drug convictions.

A 2007 study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration showed that between 16 and 20 percent of people, aged 18 to 21, reported having used drugs in the last month.

Carly Sigel, a sophomore in the College of Human Ecology, receives financial aid and said she would like to see the new bill passed.

‘If people are trying to go to school and get an education, why stop them?’ Sigel said.

The clause allowing financial aid for drug users is only one paragraph in HR 3221, a 210-page bill that proposes a significant overhaul of current government loans to students. It would create a new program called Direct Loan that would loan directly to students, rather than making them take out federal loans through private banks. This would protect students from problems with the national economy, said the bill’s sponsors.

The maximum Pell Grant would increase from the current $5,350 to $6,900, in 2019. The bill also includes money for community college renovations, historically black and minority schools and pre-kindergarten education, and would simplify the FAFSA.

The proposed bill has met resistance from conservative groups across the country. Of its 41 co-sponsors, none are Republican.

‘The speed with which Democrats are orchestrating a full government takeover of our classrooms and communities is astonishing,’ Minnesota’s John Kline, senior Republican member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, said in a statement.

Miller characterized it differently.

‘We can continue funneling taxpayer dollars through boardrooms, or we can start sending them directly to dorm rooms,’ he wrote in an article on the web site, www.politico.com.

Miller said funding for the bill would come from savings created by switching loans from private lenders to government-run Direct Loan.

Syracuse-area Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, has not yet announced whether or not he supports the bill.

jdmurp05@syr.edu

Published on September 7, 2009 at 12:00 pm