Convicted of felony, lose shot at school money

[Thom Little]

There's a catch to qualifying for financial aid. People with a drug or felony conviction often are ineligible for the generously funded public programs that make college affordable.

Bright Futures, the scholarship paying all or most of tuition to Florida students with top grades and test scores, is off-limits to anyone convicted of a felony or to anyone who's pleaded no contest to a felony charge.

The Pell Grant for low-income students, as well as other federal financial aid, is generally unavailable to people with a conviction involving possession or sale of illegal drugs.

"There's a lot of financial aid you can't get if you have a felony," said T.K. Wetherell, Florida State University president. "The other side of it is, how many of us in our lives screwed up something? Most of us made some mistake in our young lives, then got it all back together and became productive citizens."



http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051205/NEWS01/512050335/1010

[merwin]

1. Doesn't it make more sense to give the grants to people who are

trying to turn their lives around?

[VegasWolf]

3. One might think.

:toast:

[rodeodance]

8. not by their logic.. Pay for the rest of your life seems to be the logic.

[ninkasi]

12. Unless you're related to the Bushes

Then you don't have to worry about paying for anything. If I remember correctly, Noelle Bush got a high paying job after her rehab. If you're an average citizen, trying to get an education and make your life better, the "compassionate" conservatives want to make sure you pay, and pay, and pay. Paying is for us peasants, not for Bush and his elite cronies.

[deadmessengers]

2. Another article on the same subject

From yesterday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution (registration required):

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/business/1105/27roscoe.html

How do we expect convicts to not re-offend if we cut them off at the knees every time they try to do something positive with their lives?

[LeftHander]

4. The GOP - The Party that just keeps punishing....

Given the how the Repukes seem to feel our Justice system is no longer valid, having control of oth houses in many states and in the fed they can baypass the Judicial system by passing laws that continue to punish felons long after they have paid their debt to society.

[MountainLaurel]

5. And remember

That you're several times more likely to be charged or/and convicted of a drug possession if you're of a lower socioeconomic class or minority. Others can hire the lawyers necessary to plead down a case, claim that it was just a "youthful indiscretion," or pick apart police procedures so that there is no real case. And, of course, these aren't the folks who have to rely on financial aid to go to college.

Frankly, I'm more and more convinced that these and other financial aid regulations are being put in place to continue feeding poor but bright kids into the war machine, who see the military as their only option for going to college.

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. A Republican is someone...

...who can't drive by a treehouse without imagining himself sitting in it and pulling up the ladder.

[MountainLaurel]

11. Great way to put it!

:hi:

[Psephos]

14. LOL n/t

[rodeodance]

7. He is right----why should people be punished for the rest of their lives

when they have paid thier dues (fine, prison or whatever)!!!!!!


But denying college aid to the people mostly likely to get bogged down in poverty, crime and addiction doesn't make sense, others say. Public Defender Nancy Daniels, also of the 2nd Judicial Circuit, said it's an even tougher situation with the Florida Legislature busily turning crimes that once were misdemeanors into felonies.

''It's almost like a permanent stigmatization now in your life, even if the one offense happened at age 18, it stays your whole life," Daniels said.

[depakid]

9. ".... doesn't make sense"

I can't think of a single Republican policy that does. We're not taklking about rational people here. That should be a given.

Lose/lose seems to be a way of life with these people- even though they seem to think of everything as a zero sum game.

[genieroze]

10. You get your life ruined for a tiny bag of weed, while a-holes like * get

to DWI and snort coke and Lord knows what else and have daddy cover up his dirty deeds. While the little wife sells at college and gets away with it. HYPOCRITES!

[Toots]

13. But Congressmen who take bribes and commit felonies get pensions.

:shrug: why does thi not surprise me?