Alright playas, I think you need to know (new conspiracy to keep the peoples uneducated?)

Have you heard of the Higher Education Act of 1998? This bad boy contains a little known provision which denies federal financial aid to students who've been convicted of a drug offense. (The author of the law: Rep. Mark Souder, a republican from Indiana, and a one of those crazy conservatives)

Anyway, check this: You can commit murder and get financial aid; you get caught with a blunt and no more financial aid. Make sense? No other offense warrants this penalty.

Who's affected by this law: only those who need financial aid. Hey, you or your parents can afford school by yourself, no problems for you.

It just gets worse: Blacks make up 12-13% of the American population, 13% of drug users, but account for an astounding 55% of drug convictions.(www.sentencingproject.org/policy/9070.htm) Yo, its not just rhetoric any more, the numbers are out there to prove it. And when your getting convicted at a higher rate, it doesn't take a genius to realize that you're losing financial aid at a higher rate.

And according to the latest numbers from US Dept. of Education ('95-'96 school year) 50% of black undergraduates receive financial aid, compared to 44.6% for Hispanics and 33.2% of whites.

Yes, blacks are going to be affected disproportionately. No doubt.

Yeah, thats right, we can argue over whether the intentions were originally racist or not (I dont really think so), but at this point, only willful ignorance is keeping you from admitting that this bill is a racist bit of _______(fill in the blank).

I'd like to hear how many have heard of this before? Anybody still in school and want to know more/what to do?

-evans

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.
- Rev. Martin Niemoller (Nazi-era german preacher)