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UC Berkeley amendment bypasses federal aid limits for convicted drug offenders
By Kevin Sajdak
Posted: 3/2/07, 12:50 AM EST Section: News
The student government at the University of California, Berkeley recently created a school-funded scholarship for students deemed ineligible for financial aid because of a previous drug conviction.
Citing educational opportunity - while remaining critical of a 1998 amendment to the Higher Education Act - Berkeley became the fourth college to establish such a scholarship. This is the first time a school's student government enacted such a change.
"It's absolutely ridiculous that we have a policy that takes money from people trying to go to school," said David Wasserman, the senator in the Berkeley Associated Students that drafted the scholarship program and a senior political science major. "What it actually does is deprive students of a means to education (which is) antithetical to the aims of the Higher Education Act."
Section 484 (r) of the Higher Education Act deems any student convicted in a state or federal court for a crime involving "the possession or sale of a controlled substance shall not be eligible to receive any grant, loan, or work assistance."
That amendment mandates a one-year aid suspension of aid for possession of a controlled substance for first time offenders. A two-year suspension is required for the second offense. Students with three drug-use convictions or two drug-dealing convictions are deemed permanently ineligible. Alcohol is not considered a controlled substance.
Congress will reevaluate the amendment this year as part of a reauthorization of the entire Higher Education Act, first drafted in 1965. A 2006 provision in the Deficit Reduction Act narrowed the rule to only currently enrolled students with drug convictions. As of the 2006-2007 school year, students with pre-college drug convictions are no longer penalized.
While the Los Angeles Times reported the stipend covers about $400, Wasserman described it as a "symbolic gesture to protest a law that we view as unjust." The stipend also serves to show that Berkeley students are "putting our money where our mouth is," Wasserman said.
Citing educational opportunity - while remaining critical of a 1998 amendment to the Higher Education Act - Berkeley became the fourth college to establish such a scholarship. This is the first time a school's student government enacted such a change.
"It's absolutely ridiculous that we have a policy that takes money from people trying to go to school," said David Wasserman, the senator in the Berkeley Associated Students that drafted the scholarship program and a senior political science major. "What it actually does is deprive students of a means to education (which is) antithetical to the aims of the Higher Education Act."
Section 484 (r) of the Higher Education Act deems any student convicted in a state or federal court for a crime involving "the possession or sale of a controlled substance shall not be eligible to receive any grant, loan, or work assistance."
That amendment mandates a one-year aid suspension of aid for possession of a controlled substance for first time offenders. A two-year suspension is required for the second offense. Students with three drug-use convictions or two drug-dealing convictions are deemed permanently ineligible. Alcohol is not considered a controlled substance.
Congress will reevaluate the amendment this year as part of a reauthorization of the entire Higher Education Act, first drafted in 1965. A 2006 provision in the Deficit Reduction Act narrowed the rule to only currently enrolled students with drug convictions. As of the 2006-2007 school year, students with pre-college drug convictions are no longer penalized.
While the Los Angeles Times reported the stipend covers about $400, Wasserman described it as a "symbolic gesture to protest a law that we view as unjust." The stipend also serves to show that Berkeley students are "putting our money where our mouth is," Wasserman said.
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