Valerie's Message to Congress about The War on Education

"Dear Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein,

As your constituent, I'm writing to urge you to make sure that the penalty
that strips financial aid from college students with drug convictions
repealed through the Higher Education Act reauthorization. Since the aid
elimination penalty was added as an amendment to HEA in 1998, nearly
200,000 aspiring students have been blocked access to aid, often for
relatively minor offenses such as possession of small amounts of marijuana.

While the penalty is supposed to keep young people away from drugs, it
actually does the opposite by kicking at-risk students out of school.

But blocking access to education doesn't just hurt the students directly
impacted - it has harmful implications for society as a whole. college
graduates are much more likely to become successful taxpaying citizens,
while those who are kicked out of school are more likely to abuse drugs,
become costly drains on the criminal justice system, and rely on expensive
government assistance programs.

Furthermore, since there are already minimum GPA requirements to receive
financial aid, the penalty only affects hardworking students who are doing
well in their classes.

As for students who are causing problems and disrupting the learning
process for others, college administrators already have the authority to
expel them, and judges have long had the ability to revoke student aid
from people with drug convictions on a case-by-case basis. The
one-size-fits-all penalty strips discretion from decision-makers who know
students best.

Numerous addiction recovery, criminal justice, religious, and other
leaders have insisted that education is one of the best means to reduce
crime and drug abuse, and Congress's own Advisory Committee on student
Financial Assistance recommended removing the drug conviction question
from the aid application, calling it "irrelevant" to eligibility. Even
the Bush administration doesn't like the penalty; the Undersecretary of
Education recently testified to a House subcommittee that the drug
question is "not anything that we need at the department."

Fortunately, this year's HEA reauthorization process presents a great
opportunity to get rid of the harmful and unfair penalty once and for all.
Please help tens of thousands of hardworking and determined individuals
get back into school and on the path to success by making sure that the
HEA bill includes language repealing the aid elimination penalty.

Thanks for your attention to this important issue. I look forward to
hearing your thoughts as soon as you have a chance to share them."

-- Valerie Batlle

Tell Congress to help people like Valerie: http://capwiz.com/mobilize/issues/alert/?alertID=9628286