State lawmakers debated and approved a bill Tuesday that would deny financial aid to students convicted of possessing controlled substances with the intent of distributing.
Members of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities held a public hearing on the measure, Assembly Bill 1035, before considering it in an executive session.
AB 1035 was written by Rep. Eugene Hahn, R-Cambria, in an effort to more fairly distribute financial aid to low-income students.
"You have law-abiding students that [currently] aren't eligible," AB 1035 supporter Rep. Andy Lamb, R-Menomonie, said, adding students convicted of drug possession are depriving other students of much-needed funds.
While Republican bill backers maintained the measure was a means of aligning Wisconsin law more closely with federal law — which already bans federal assistance to such convicted felons — Democratic opponents called the bill discriminatory and misdirected.
According to Steven Schuetz, of the Wisconsin Association of Student Financial Aid Administration, AB 1035 would discriminate against low- and middle-class students who would be unable to access higher education opportunities without financial assistance.
Inaccessible education, Schuetz added, may only perpetuate the cycle by promoting further drug abuse.
"The cause of many underlying social problems that predispose students to drug abuse may well be a lack of education," he said. "By denying these students financial aid, we may be contributing to the problem of drug abuse, not helping to solve it."
Opponents added the policy would be difficult to enforce, as it relies on students self-reporting their criminal history.
But Rep. Debi Towns, R-Janesville, countered enforcement is possible if administrators were to check each student's background against a criminal records database — a suggestion opponents said would be unreasonably time-consuming and costly.
"If your aim is to provide more money to the students, this would be counterproductive," Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, said, adding the high administrative costs would deplete the total amount of financial aid available for all students.
Lamb, however, suggested the alternative is far worse.
"How do you feel about subsidizing our tax dollars for drug dealers?" he said.
Committee members passed AB 1035 in a 7-5 party-line vote.
