New Higher Ed Policy and Drug Convictions

It's one of those hush hush provisions that happens quietly without a lot of fanfare. We would like to see the law actually changed although this is a good start.

h/t to Talk Left
....the annual and aggregate limits on how much individual students can borrow from
the federal loan programs, a top priority of private college officials. Nor does
it cut the interest rate on subsidized student loans, which the House bill would
slash in half over five years.
The Senate legislation would also eliminate
from the federal financial aid application a controversial question asking
whether applicants have been convicted of drug possession while receiving
federal student aid. That question has been used to identify and strip
financial aid from thousands of students. While the Senate bill would leave
the drug possession penalty in the law, dropping the question from the federal
financial aid form would make enforcement of the provision very difficult.
“We’re thrilled that the committee has acted to make sure that students with
drug convictions will no longer be automatically stripped of their aid and will
be able to stay in school and on the path to success,” said Tom Angell,
government relations director at Students for Sensible Drug Policy. “While it
would be more appropriate to simply erase the penalty from the lawbooks
altogether, we support the committee’s effort to make sure that students with
drug convictions can get aid just like anyone else.”