Hea Act

In our society, there are many obstacles that face students who are trying to obtain a college education. First, the student has to do well in high school, pass the S.A.T.’s, and be able to afford to pay for a college education. For those who can’t afford to pay for college there is Financial Aid. But what if financial aid was taken away from students based solely on one minor drug offense? I will address several reasons why I believe the Souder Amendment is unethical and why it should be repealed.

The Souder Amendment was developed by Rep. Mark Souder that denies financial aid to students with a drug conviction. This amendment is in total contradiction of the Higher Education Act which was developed in 1968 to provide financial aid to over 7 million students each year. Financial Aid was invented to provide financial assistance to students who come from low income families. Seeing how financial aid is solely based on the families financial household income, the money that is awarded to the family should not be in jeopardy if being taken away due to the students prior drug offense. By using this offense as a consequence to committing a drug related crime, it introduces many obstacles for middle class people,

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minorities, and it ignores the most widely abused drug on college campuses - alcohol.

Working class students are the majority of people that

attend college on scholarships and financial aid. While in school, experimentation may introduce itself as something that should be done while attending college. The consequences of allowing yourself to fall victim to drinking or taking drugs previously only had the consequence of a tremendous hang over the next morning. If caught by an official abusing drugs or alcohol, detainment would normally occur and several minor measures would be met to ensure the diversion of attempting to “experiment” again. But now that the Souder Amendment has been drafted, that one offense prevents a student from obtaining anymore government financed money to attend school. This is unethical to me because after the student realizes their mistakes and suffers the embarrassment of getting caught, they now have the burden of trying to obtain money to continue to pay for school. Quickly raising several thousands of dollars to pay for their next semester rarely happens and they are forced to take a semester off of school to save up so they can enroll the following semester. While out of school, the student may be at risk to fall victim to abusing more drugs, seeing how no further measures were taken to provide the

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student with help while out of school. Stress and the sense of failure may overcome the students life and the idea of continuing their college education becomes a fading memory. While one experiment with some friends seemed fun while in

school, the idea of your entire college career being stripped away from you is a much bigger burden that no student should have to worry about.

Minorities make up a very large percentage of college students in the U.S. Out of that minority, African Americans and Latinos seem to hold onto about 35% combined. As this is already a low percentage, the number will inevitably decrease because of the Souder Amendment due to the fact that minorities are the leading obtainers of financial aid. Upper class individuals, usually Caucasian students, are not affected what so ever by this Amendment because they can afford to pay for school on their own. This is unjust because it basically sends a message that its okay to experiment with drugs and get caught as long as you can afford to pay for school on your own. With the number of minorities in college decreasing, minorities high school who are seniors, will become hesitant to attend the majority of Cal States and Universities due to the low percentage of African American and Latino students. The Souder