SSDP Voice - Issue 1 - July 2006

NATIONAL NEWS

The right to know
SSDP defeats Department of Education in FOIA lawsuit, releases high-profile report on financial aid fallout

In our quest to reveal the damage caused by the Higher Education Act (HEA) Aid Elimination Penalty, SSDP filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out exactly how many students in each state have lost their aid because of drug convictions.

To our surprise, the Department of Education demanded a whopping $4,100 processing fee to provide the data. FOIA fees are waived when providing access to information is considered in the public interest. But the Department of Education claimed that instead of being in the public interest, access to this information could actually further the commercial interests of those who might profit from the legalization of drugs.

SSDP campaigns director Tom Angell made a good point about this in The Nation on May 25:

"I guess the suggestion is that if people know how many students in every state are affected by the HEA provision, the drug war will end," said Angell.

Even the government admits that people would turn against the War on Drugs if they understood its consequences.

In January 2006, SSDP, represented by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In February, the New York Times editorialized on our behalf, saying the fee “represents an increasingly common tactic that is used by the government to discourage public inquiries.” And just before they were required to respond, the DoE settled out of court, giving us the information free of charge in April.

You can read the report we issued detailing the state-by-state impact  of the HEA Aid Elimination Penalty at www.ssdp.org/states. Interestingly, the state with the most students denied aid was Indiana, home of Rep. Mark Souder, sponsor of the financial aid provision.

The Nation concluded their story about the report’s release this way: “Should the drug war end as a result, SSDP promises to donate any ensuing profits to repairing the damage caused by decades of foolish drug-control policies.”

[To help make this scenario a reality, consider donating to SSDP at www.ssdp.org/donate.]

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