Second chance for collegians with drug offenses?

by Gabrielle Russon

It's a crime that Marisa Garcia said she's being punished for twice.

Seven years ago, police found a pipe with marijuana residue in her car. "I went to the court, pled guilty and figured I'd pay my fine and that would be done," said Garcia, who was then a freshman at California State University at Fullerton.

Instead her financial aid form was returned, and Garcia, hailing from a single parent household, was stripped of her federal funding because of the drug conviction. To keep Garcia in school, her mother refinanced their family home and charged her textbooks on a credit card.

On Wednesday, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) announced an amendment for the reauthorization of Higher Education Act that would allow college students with drug convictions to keep their financial aid. It was later withdrawn.

Had the amendment passed, the question on the FAFSA form - if students have ever been convicted of drug offenses - would become irrelevant. The FAFSA form is what’s filled out to determine federal funding.

"It's not fair. You don't have this prohibition for people convicted of rape, armed robbery, child pornography, drunk driving," Scott said in late October. "You just get caught with a little bit of pot, you lose your college education."

But some politicians argue that the law shouldn't change – people with drug convictions are undeserving of tax dollars to subsidize their education, they say.

"I believe that students who are dealing or abusing drugs probably aren't making the most of their educations," said Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), who opposed the amendment, in a statement. "It's one thing if they are going to do it with their own money…but it's something else to ask the American taxpayer to fund this kind of behavior."

Plus, the current law is forgiving for those with drug convictions, said Martin Green, Souder's spokesman. If students are convicted for possession, they're ineligible for financial aid for one year; for dealing, it's two years. Completing a drug rehabilitation program with two drug tests also reinstates funding, Green said.

Currently, the law only affects students who have been convicted of drug offenses while enrolled in a university. High school seniors with drug convictions who haven't stepped onto a college campus can still fill out the FAFSA form without losing their financial aid.

Some demand the withdrawal of the penalty because they say it unfairly targets people with low incomes. Without financial aid, many fall back into a habitual cycle of crime because they can't afford a college degree, said Hilary Shelton, director of NAACP's Washington bureau, last month.

"They've paid their debit to society," Shelton said. "They're back on America's streets, indeed, they should be giving the opportunity to get a college education.

"Those Americans that are able to get a college education are much less likely to get in trouble again, which means we've cut the recidivism rate significantly."

Almost 200,000 people have lost their financial aid because of how the law currently stands, said Tom Angell, a spokesman for Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a grassroots organization that lobbied on Capitol Hill last month.

"This is affecting people," said Garcia, now a junior, who aspires to perhaps be a sociologist. "I'm one of the lucky ones. I didn't have to drop out of school."