Getting Schooled

Have you ever heard the phrase, "knowledge is free?" While that statement may be true for some situations, for the majority of people applying for student financial aid would disagree. An article in    The New York Times brings up the issue that people are not given a fair chance to receive money to go to college. In 2000, the government made a law restricting financial loans to people with even minor offenses. According to his article, close to 200,000 have been denied aid.
The law changed in 2005, becoming more specific to who would be eligible.

One of the biggest issues that the authors face in this situation is that this law is counterproductive. Our government and economy are there to support education, and should be driving citizens to go to college. But how can we continue to stand behind a law that prevents us from doing so? Because they do not differentiate between minor and major offenses. We need to understand that the war on drugs has gone too far when we deprive people from learning. It scares me that we can live in a world that is so afraid of "the war on drugs," that they will take away the chance for a student to go to college over a minor offense. Of course, the government needs to have certain restrictions for student loans, they also need to loosen up a little bit. There are many arguments that can be made both for and against giving financial aid to ex-criminals, but in the end, the only way that we can advance is if we give everyone a fair opportunity to.