After a full 10 years of contacting representatives, gathering signatures, writing articles, and spreading the outrage, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, along with hundreds of supporting organizations was sure their determined efforts would finally pay off and that Congressional leadership would follow through with their pledge to repeal the counterproductive Aid Elimination Penalty of the Higher Education Act. However, we have yet again been terribly deceived.

    If you’ve ever wondered why you’re asked about drug offenses when applying for federal financial aid through FAFSA, thank Representative Mark Souder (R-IN), who somehow managed to slip the AEP into the Higher Education Act in 1998 without any debate or vote. Since then, this amendment has denied over 200,000 students federal financial aid, and in turn access to education. While we assume the reasoning behind Souder’s action was that he thought it would decrease drug abuse, it’s done the exact opposite by forcing students to drop out of school, therefore increasing their risk of drug abuse and criminal activity.

    Regardless of the penalty's intentions, it has blatantly attacked hard-working students, people of color, and the lower and middle class. Since the FAFSA already requires satisfactory academic progress in order for a student to be eligible for federal financial aid, the AEP only affects hard-working students who have been doing well in school. While African-Americans make up a fairly small portion of the population, racial profiling leads to an absurdly disproportionate higher number of African-Americans arrested for drug offenses. And since middle and lower class families are depending solely on financial aid, it’s easy to see why wealthy families may not be too concerned.

    Many members of Congress who were on our side initially have informed us that they became terrified of facing negative attacks, fearing they’d be labeled as “pro-drug”. In reality,it is precisely the Aid Elimination Penalty they are supporting that continues to increase drug abuse and decrease education. Anybody who is against racial profiling, increasing drug abuse, and decreasing education should be against this penalty. Please fill out this pre-written letter and demand an explanation from your local legislators! Unless they hear from their constituents, they won’t realize what their people want and will continue to follow their misguided instincts.

George Miller's education and labor committee put out a press release today that said the president's budget for next year will cut funding for historically black colleges and universities by $85 million -- 35 percent -- from last year. In fact, other than a small bump in Pell grant funding required by the Higher Education Act that Congress passed last year and dumping some more funding into the no good No Child Left Behind Act, the proposed budget will terminate 47 education programs worth more than $3 billion and cut funding to three education programs that would total $544 million. It sounds like funding higher education just isn't a priority for the president.

As we all remember from AP US History, President Johnson signed many pieces of progressive legislation into law during the Great Society. One of these bills may be argued to be the single most important bill regarding higher education in the history of the United States: The Higher Education Act of 1965. The act funds our public institutions of higher education across the country and allocates grants and low-interest rate loans for students who otherwise would not be able to afford to pursue the American Dream. Sounds great, right? Well, Congress needs to reauthorize it every few years and the last time they did so was in 1998. For all the non-math majors out there like myself, that was almost a decade ago!   Read More »