July 05, 2005
You can still get financial aid if you have a murder conviction
by Liza Sabater
This has got to be the most mean spirited bureaucratic boondagles I've read in a while.
Ed Dept Agrees to Remove False I
The Department of Education's webpage for aid eligibility incorrectly tells students that in order to receive aid they "must not have any drug convictions."
While it is true that more than 160,500 students with drug convictions have been denied financial aid under a little-known provision of the Higher Education Act, the law allows some such students to regain their eligibility, depending on the type of convictions and the date they occurred.
"There's no way to tell how many eligible students saw the Department of Education's webpage and didn't apply for aid because of this false information," said Scarlett Swerdlow, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. "The government should be in the business of providing accurate information to citizens, not misleading them about opportunities for education. This misinformation should be removed from the web as soon as possible."
The deadline for submission was July the 3rd. The information was supposedly not going to be updated until the 23rd of the month --although it looks like they already did. But as Ms. Swerdlow pointed out, there is no way of knowing how many people were affected by the false information.
Notice though that, there is nothing there about any other criminal convictions. So if you are a convicted rapist, file away. Am I making this up? Nope :
Inevitably, Boyd noted, the law will disproportionately affect African Americans and Latinos, who are arrested and convicted of drug offenses at a much higher rate than whites. Recent Department of Justice statistics show that African Americans make up 12 percent of the population and 13 percent of drug offenders, but represent more than 62 percent of convictions and more then 70 percent of incarcerations for drug possession.Students convicted of any other crime, even murder or rape, are still eligible for financial aid and tax credits, while those convicted of marijuana or other drug charges face a bar to aid that lasts anywhere from one year to life.
Some 10 million students apply for federal financial aid each year. According to the federal government's estimates, some 27 percent of all Americans aged 18 to 25 have used illegal drugs in the past year. That means the new law could potentially affect hundreds of thousands, even millions, of students.
Meanwhile we have a president who was not only an alcoholic but a coke abuser and who went to Hardvard and graduated with a C thanks to his pappa's connections.
Unfuckingbelieveable.
Posted by Liza Sabater in Drugs, Education, Government
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