Student Loan Relief Is Limited For Many By The Legacy Of The Us Drug War

As part of the “war on drugs” — a consequential, anti-crime legislative agenda that Biden championed as a U.S. senator — it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of convicted drug offenders have had their access to federal financial aid delayed or denied, including Pell grants and student loans. If they wanted to go to college after their incarceration ended, these offenders had to take out larger, often predatory, private student loans. Some were discouraged from seeking federal aid by the requirement to disclose their drug histories on financial aid applications, while others put off college or dropped out altogether. The people most affected by these policies: Black and Latino men, thanks to drug laws in the 1990s with stiff penalties for crack and marijuana offenses. Incarceration rates for men of color skyrocketed. The policies remained in place for 25 years, until Congress repealed the Pell Grant ban in 2020. America’s student loan debt burden, which now exceeds $1.6 trillion, “is especially heavy on black and Hispanic borrowers, who on average have less family wealth to pay it,” said Biden last week as he announced the pardon plan. The administration offered to forgive up to $10,000 in student debt for people earning less than $125,000 in annual income or less than $250,000 for families. And his offer doubles the debt relief to $20,000 for borrowers who also received Pell grants, a federal program that provides the neediest undergraduates with aid they don’t have to repay. Full Coverage: Student Loans Studies show that Pell Grants—one of the nation’s most effective financial aid programs—typically help more than half of black students and nearly half of Hispanic students afford college. According to the White House, among the 43 million borrowers eligible for debt relief under Biden’s plan, more than 60 percent are Pell Grant recipients. The White House said in a statement to The Associated Press that the student debt relief plan would eliminate about half of the average debt held by black and Hispanic borrowers, not counting the additional $10,000 write-off for Pell Grant recipients. Amid debate over whether Biden’s amnesty plan goes far enough for disproportionately indebted communities, criminal justice reform advocates say the president’s solutions to the student debt crisis must be as comprehensive as anti-drug laws . “I think there’s a special onus on this administration and this president to be part of the solution to issues that he’s been very deeply involved in,” said Melissa Moore, director of urban systems reform at the Drug Policy Alliance. There’s a generation of ex-drug offenders who borrowed to pay for school, but don’t have Pell grants or federal loans and won’t have any of their student debt forgiven. According to a Student Borrower Protection Center report on private loan debt, black students are four times more likely than white students to have difficulty repaying their private loans. “For people who previously would have had to check that box, there should be some mechanism by which, if they were disqualified in the past, they would now be prioritized for relief,” Moore said. An AP review last year of federal and state incarceration data showed that, between 1975 and 2019, the U.S. prison population grew from 240,593 to 1.43 million Americans as a result of President Richard Nixon’s 1971 war on drugs. .About 1 in 5 people were incarcerated for a drug offense listed as their most serious crime. Democratic and Republican successors to the Nixon presidency will continue to capitalize on drug war policies in response to an alarming national increase in violent crime linked to the illegal drug trade, cementing the legacy of the drug war. After tougher state and federal penalties for crack and other drugs were passed, incarceration rates for blacks and Hispanics tripled between 1970 and 2000. By comparison, the incarceration rate for whites only doubled over the same time period. Biden’s Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 enacted a ban on Pell grants and other federal financial aid for people held in federal or state prisons. However, then-Sen. Biden reportedly opposed the amendment that added the ban to his bill. At the time, his spokesman said Biden believed education programs could break the cycle of recidivism among formerly incarcerated people. Ultimately, Biden worked passionately to pass the crime bill he championed. Academic programs in federal and state prisons, which had been robust, were significantly reduced nationally. Later, in 1998, Congress expanded the ban to disqualify any student with a state or federal drug conviction from receiving Pell grants and federal student loans, for as little as one year or indefinitely, depending on the number of convictions. Biden voted in favor of the measure, though his opinion on the Pell Grant provision was unclear. In just five years after the expanded ban went into effect, the measure has cost more than 140,000 prospective students between $41 million and $54 million in Pell grants annually and between $100 million and $164 million in federal student loans annually, according to an estimate by federal government accountability office. However, in 2006, Congress changed the ban on grants to drug offenders. It applied only to students whose convictions occurred while receiving federal student aid, greatly limiting its impact, although experts say the law still forced hundreds of enrolled students to drop out of college when they lost their aid. The ban on Pell grants for incarcerated individuals was fully lifted when Congress passed the COVID-19 Spending and Relief Act in December 2020. Drug convictions no longer affect a student’s eligibility for financial aid, although the question still appears on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. In April, the U.S. Department of Education expanded the Second Chance Program, which provides scholarships to incarcerated students to help them enroll in academic programs. A further expansion of Pell grants to incarcerated students begins in July 2023, according to the Department of Education. For DeAnna Hoskins, the legacy of the war on drugs nearly cost her her precious Pell grants and student loans. She attended college after her incarceration and, coincidentally, right after the ban on helping people with drug convictions was lifted. “The ’94 crime bill was so comprehensive in the destruction it did,” said Hoskins, the president of JustLeadershipUSA, a criminal justice reform group. He wonders how Biden’s debt relief plan was designed. “I feel like you’re giving us back our release piecemeal.” There are tens of thousands of people who had to take out high-interest private student loans because of the ban on Pell grants, Hoskins added. “That’s why it’s so important, when decisions like this are made, that the voices of people with lived experiences are present,” he said. “We can help you get the equity you’re looking for.”

Associated Press news reporter Rhonda Shafner contributed.

Aaron Morrison is a New York-based national writer for the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter:

title: “Student Loan Relief Is Limited For Many By The Legacy Of The Us Drug War Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-31” author: “Ruth Kerley”

As part of the “war on drugs” — a consequential, anti-crime legislative agenda that Biden championed as a U.S. senator — it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of convicted drug offenders have had their access to federal financial aid delayed or denied, including Pell grants and student loans. If they wanted to go to college after their incarceration ended, these offenders had to take out larger, often predatory, private student loans. Some were discouraged from seeking federal aid by the requirement to disclose their drug histories on financial aid applications, while others put off college or dropped out altogether. The people most affected by these policies: Black and Latino men, thanks to drug laws in the 1990s with stiff penalties for crack and marijuana offenses. Incarceration rates for men of color skyrocketed. The policies remained in place for 25 years, until Congress repealed the Pell Grant ban in 2020. America’s student loan debt burden, which now exceeds $1.6 trillion, “is especially heavy on black and Hispanic borrowers, who on average have less family wealth to pay it,” said Biden last week as he announced the pardon plan. The administration offered to forgive up to $10,000 in student debt for people earning less than $125,000 in annual income or less than $250,000 for families. And his offer doubles the debt relief to $20,000 for borrowers who also received Pell grants, a federal program that provides the neediest undergraduates with aid they don’t have to repay. Full Coverage: Student Loans Studies show that Pell Grants—one of the nation’s most effective financial aid programs—typically help more than half of black students and nearly half of Hispanic students afford college. According to the White House, among the 43 million borrowers eligible for debt relief under Biden’s plan, more than 60 percent are Pell Grant recipients. The White House said in a statement to The Associated Press that the student debt relief plan would eliminate about half of the average debt held by black and Hispanic borrowers, not counting the additional $10,000 write-off for Pell Grant recipients. Amid debate over whether Biden’s amnesty plan goes far enough for disproportionately indebted communities, criminal justice reform advocates say the president’s solutions to the student debt crisis must be as comprehensive as anti-drug laws . “I think there’s a special onus on this administration and this president to be part of the solution to issues that he’s been very deeply involved in,” said Melissa Moore, director of urban systems reform at the Drug Policy Alliance. There’s a generation of ex-drug offenders who borrowed to pay for school, but don’t have Pell grants or federal loans and won’t have any of their student debt forgiven. According to a Student Borrower Protection Center report on private loan debt, black students are four times more likely than white students to have difficulty repaying their private loans. “For people who previously would have had to check that box, there should be some mechanism by which, if they were disqualified in the past, they would now be prioritized for relief,” Moore said. An AP review last year of federal and state incarceration data showed that, between 1975 and 2019, the U.S. prison population grew from 240,593 to 1.43 million Americans as a result of President Richard Nixon’s 1971 war on drugs. .About 1 in 5 people were incarcerated for a drug offense listed as their most serious crime. Democratic and Republican successors to the Nixon presidency will continue to capitalize on drug war policies in response to an alarming national increase in violent crime linked to the illegal drug trade, cementing the legacy of the drug war. After tougher state and federal penalties for crack and other drugs were passed, incarceration rates for blacks and Hispanics tripled between 1970 and 2000. By comparison, the incarceration rate for whites only doubled over the same time period. Biden’s Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 enacted a ban on Pell grants and other federal financial aid for people held in federal or state prisons. However, then-Sen. Biden reportedly opposed the amendment that added the ban to his bill. At the time, his spokesman said Biden believed education programs could break the cycle of recidivism among formerly incarcerated people. Ultimately, Biden worked passionately to pass the crime bill he championed. Academic programs in federal and state prisons, which had been robust, were significantly reduced nationally. Later, in 1998, Congress expanded the ban to disqualify any student with a state or federal drug conviction from receiving Pell grants and federal student loans, for as little as one year or indefinitely, depending on the number of convictions. Biden voted in favor of the measure, though his opinion on the Pell Grant provision was unclear. In just five years after the expanded ban went into effect, the measure has cost more than 140,000 prospective students between $41 million and $54 million in Pell grants annually and between $100 million and $164 million in federal student loans annually, according to an estimate by federal government accountability office. However, in 2006, Congress changed the ban on grants to drug offenders. It applied only to students whose convictions occurred while receiving federal student aid, greatly limiting its impact, although experts say the law still forced hundreds of enrolled students to drop out of college when they lost their aid. The ban on Pell grants for incarcerated individuals was fully lifted when Congress passed the COVID-19 Spending and Relief Act in December 2020. Drug convictions no longer affect a student’s eligibility for financial aid, although the question still appears on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. In April, the U.S. Department of Education expanded the Second Chance Program, which provides scholarships to incarcerated students to help them enroll in academic programs. A further expansion of Pell grants to incarcerated students begins in July 2023, according to the Department of Education. For DeAnna Hoskins, the legacy of the war on drugs nearly cost her her precious Pell grants and student loans. She attended college after her incarceration and, coincidentally, right after the ban on helping people with drug convictions was lifted. “The ’94 crime bill was so comprehensive in the destruction it did,” said Hoskins, the president of JustLeadershipUSA, a criminal justice reform group. He wonders how Biden’s debt relief plan was designed. “I feel like you’re giving us back our release piecemeal.” There are tens of thousands of people who had to take out high-interest private student loans because of the ban on Pell grants, Hoskins added. “That’s why it’s so important, when decisions like this are made, that the voices of people with lived experiences are present,” he said. “We can help you get the equity you’re looking for.”

Associated Press news reporter Rhonda Shafner contributed.

Aaron Morrison is a New York-based national writer for the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter:

title: “Student Loan Relief Is Limited For Many By The Legacy Of The Us Drug War Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-12” author: “Johnnie Grant”

As part of the “war on drugs” — a consequential, anti-crime legislative agenda that Biden championed as a U.S. senator — it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of convicted drug offenders have had their access to federal financial aid delayed or denied, including Pell grants and student loans. If they wanted to go to college after their incarceration ended, these offenders had to take out larger, often predatory, private student loans. Some were discouraged from seeking federal aid by the requirement to disclose their drug histories on financial aid applications, while others put off college or dropped out altogether. The people most affected by these policies: Black and Latino men, thanks to drug laws in the 1990s with stiff penalties for crack and marijuana offenses. Incarceration rates for men of color skyrocketed. The policies remained in place for 25 years, until Congress repealed the Pell Grant ban in 2020. America’s student loan debt burden, which now exceeds $1.6 trillion, “is especially heavy on black and Hispanic borrowers, who on average have less family wealth to pay it,” said Biden last week as he announced the pardon plan. The administration offered to forgive up to $10,000 in student debt for people earning less than $125,000 in annual income or less than $250,000 for families. And his offer doubles the debt relief to $20,000 for borrowers who also received Pell grants, a federal program that provides the neediest undergraduates with aid they don’t have to repay. Full Coverage: Student Loans Studies show that Pell Grants—one of the nation’s most effective financial aid programs—typically help more than half of black students and nearly half of Hispanic students afford college. According to the White House, among the 43 million borrowers eligible for debt relief under Biden’s plan, more than 60 percent are Pell Grant recipients. The White House said in a statement to The Associated Press that the student debt relief plan would eliminate about half of the average debt held by black and Hispanic borrowers, not counting the additional $10,000 write-off for Pell Grant recipients. Amid debate over whether Biden’s amnesty plan goes far enough for disproportionately indebted communities, criminal justice reform advocates say the president’s solutions to the student debt crisis must be as comprehensive as anti-drug laws . “I think there’s a special onus on this administration and this president to be part of the solution to issues that he’s been very deeply involved in,” said Melissa Moore, director of urban systems reform at the Drug Policy Alliance. There’s a generation of ex-drug offenders who borrowed to pay for school, but don’t have Pell grants or federal loans and won’t have any of their student debt forgiven. According to a Student Borrower Protection Center report on private loan debt, black students are four times more likely than white students to have difficulty repaying their private loans. “For people who previously would have had to check that box, there should be some mechanism by which, if they were disqualified in the past, they would now be prioritized for relief,” Moore said. An AP review last year of federal and state incarceration data showed that, between 1975 and 2019, the U.S. prison population grew from 240,593 to 1.43 million Americans as a result of President Richard Nixon’s 1971 war on drugs. .About 1 in 5 people were incarcerated for a drug offense listed as their most serious crime. Democratic and Republican successors to the Nixon presidency will continue to capitalize on drug war policies in response to an alarming national increase in violent crime linked to the illegal drug trade, cementing the legacy of the drug war. After tougher state and federal penalties for crack and other drugs were passed, incarceration rates for blacks and Hispanics tripled between 1970 and 2000. By comparison, the incarceration rate for whites only doubled over the same time period. Biden’s Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 enacted a ban on Pell grants and other federal financial aid for people held in federal or state prisons. However, then-Sen. Biden reportedly opposed the amendment that added the ban to his bill. At the time, his spokesman said Biden believed education programs could break the cycle of recidivism among formerly incarcerated people. Ultimately, Biden worked passionately to pass the crime bill he championed. Academic programs in federal and state prisons, which had been robust, were significantly reduced nationally. Later, in 1998, Congress expanded the ban to disqualify any student with a state or federal drug conviction from receiving Pell grants and federal student loans, for as little as one year or indefinitely, depending on the number of convictions. Biden voted in favor of the measure, though his opinion on the Pell Grant provision was unclear. In just five years after the expanded ban went into effect, the measure has cost more than 140,000 prospective students between $41 million and $54 million in Pell grants annually and between $100 million and $164 million in federal student loans annually, according to an estimate by federal government accountability office. However, in 2006, Congress changed the ban on grants to drug offenders. It applied only to students whose convictions occurred while receiving federal student aid, greatly limiting its impact, although experts say the law still forced hundreds of enrolled students to drop out of college when they lost their aid. The ban on Pell grants for incarcerated individuals was fully lifted when Congress passed the COVID-19 Spending and Relief Act in December 2020. Drug convictions no longer affect a student’s eligibility for financial aid, although the question still appears on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. In April, the U.S. Department of Education expanded the Second Chance Program, which provides scholarships to incarcerated students to help them enroll in academic programs. A further expansion of Pell grants to incarcerated students begins in July 2023, according to the Department of Education. For DeAnna Hoskins, the legacy of the war on drugs nearly cost her her precious Pell grants and student loans. She attended college after her incarceration and, coincidentally, right after the ban on helping people with drug convictions was lifted. “The ’94 crime bill was so comprehensive in the destruction it did,” said Hoskins, the president of JustLeadershipUSA, a criminal justice reform group. He wonders how Biden’s debt relief plan was designed. “I feel like you’re giving us back our release piecemeal.” There are tens of thousands of people who had to take out high-interest private student loans because of the ban on Pell grants, Hoskins added. “That’s why it’s so important, when decisions like this are made, that the voices of people with lived experiences are present,” he said. “We can help you get the equity you’re looking for.”

Associated Press news reporter Rhonda Shafner contributed.

Aaron Morrison is a New York-based national writer for the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter:

title: “Student Loan Relief Is Limited For Many By The Legacy Of The Us Drug War Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-10” author: “Frank Reitz”

As part of the “war on drugs” — a consequential, anti-crime legislative agenda that Biden championed as a U.S. senator — it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of convicted drug offenders have had their access to federal financial aid delayed or denied, including Pell grants and student loans. If they wanted to go to college after their incarceration ended, these offenders had to take out larger, often predatory, private student loans. Some were discouraged from seeking federal aid by the requirement to disclose their drug histories on financial aid applications, while others put off college or dropped out altogether. The people most affected by these policies: Black and Latino men, thanks to drug laws in the 1990s with stiff penalties for crack and marijuana offenses. Incarceration rates for men of color skyrocketed. The policies remained in place for 25 years, until Congress repealed the Pell Grant ban in 2020. America’s student loan debt burden, which now exceeds $1.6 trillion, “is especially heavy on black and Hispanic borrowers, who on average have less family wealth to pay it,” said Biden last week as he announced the pardon plan. The administration offered to forgive up to $10,000 in student debt for people earning less than $125,000 in annual income or less than $250,000 for families. And his offer doubles the debt relief to $20,000 for borrowers who also received Pell grants, a federal program that provides the neediest undergraduates with aid they don’t have to repay. Full Coverage: Student Loans Studies show that Pell Grants—one of the nation’s most effective financial aid programs—typically help more than half of black students and nearly half of Hispanic students afford college. According to the White House, among the 43 million borrowers eligible for debt relief under Biden’s plan, more than 60 percent are Pell Grant recipients. The White House said in a statement to The Associated Press that the student debt relief plan would eliminate about half of the average debt held by black and Hispanic borrowers, not counting the additional $10,000 write-off for Pell Grant recipients. Amid debate over whether Biden’s amnesty plan goes far enough for disproportionately indebted communities, criminal justice reform advocates say the president’s solutions to the student debt crisis must be as comprehensive as anti-drug laws . “I think there’s a special onus on this administration and this president to be part of the solution to issues that he’s been very deeply involved in,” said Melissa Moore, director of urban systems reform at the Drug Policy Alliance. There’s a generation of ex-drug offenders who borrowed to pay for school, but don’t have Pell grants or federal loans and won’t have any of their student debt forgiven. According to a Student Borrower Protection Center report on private loan debt, black students are four times more likely than white students to have difficulty repaying their private loans. “For people who previously would have had to check that box, there should be some mechanism by which, if they were disqualified in the past, they would now be prioritized for relief,” Moore said. An AP review last year of federal and state incarceration data showed that, between 1975 and 2019, the U.S. prison population grew from 240,593 to 1.43 million Americans as a result of President Richard Nixon’s 1971 war on drugs. .About 1 in 5 people were incarcerated for a drug offense listed as their most serious crime. Democratic and Republican successors to the Nixon presidency will continue to capitalize on drug war policies in response to an alarming national increase in violent crime linked to the illegal drug trade, cementing the legacy of the drug war. After tougher state and federal penalties for crack and other drugs were passed, incarceration rates for blacks and Hispanics tripled between 1970 and 2000. By comparison, the incarceration rate for whites only doubled over the same time period. Biden’s Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 enacted a ban on Pell grants and other federal financial aid for people held in federal or state prisons. However, then-Sen. Biden reportedly opposed the amendment that added the ban to his bill. At the time, his spokesman said Biden believed education programs could break the cycle of recidivism among formerly incarcerated people. Ultimately, Biden worked passionately to pass the crime bill he championed. Academic programs in federal and state prisons, which had been robust, were significantly reduced nationally. Later, in 1998, Congress expanded the ban to disqualify any student with a state or federal drug conviction from receiving Pell grants and federal student loans, for as little as one year or indefinitely, depending on the number of convictions. Biden voted in favor of the measure, though his opinion on the Pell Grant provision was unclear. In just five years after the expanded ban went into effect, the measure has cost more than 140,000 prospective students between $41 million and $54 million in Pell grants annually and between $100 million and $164 million in federal student loans annually, according to an estimate by federal government accountability office. However, in 2006, Congress changed the ban on grants to drug offenders. It applied only to students whose convictions occurred while receiving federal student aid, greatly limiting its impact, although experts say the law still forced hundreds of enrolled students to drop out of college when they lost their aid. The ban on Pell grants for incarcerated individuals was fully lifted when Congress passed the COVID-19 Spending and Relief Act in December 2020. Drug convictions no longer affect a student’s eligibility for financial aid, although the question still appears on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. In April, the U.S. Department of Education expanded the Second Chance Program, which provides scholarships to incarcerated students to help them enroll in academic programs. A further expansion of Pell grants to incarcerated students begins in July 2023, according to the Department of Education. For DeAnna Hoskins, the legacy of the war on drugs nearly cost her her precious Pell grants and student loans. She attended college after her incarceration and, coincidentally, right after the ban on helping people with drug convictions was lifted. “The ’94 crime bill was so comprehensive in the destruction it did,” said Hoskins, the president of JustLeadershipUSA, a criminal justice reform group. He wonders how Biden’s debt relief plan was designed. “I feel like you’re giving us back our release piecemeal.” There are tens of thousands of people who had to take out high-interest private student loans because of the ban on Pell grants, Hoskins added. “That’s why it’s so important, when decisions like this are made, that the voices of people with lived experiences are present,” he said. “We can help you get the equity you’re looking for.”

Associated Press news reporter Rhonda Shafner contributed.

Aaron Morrison is a New York-based national writer for the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: