You know, it takes a lot to surprise me anymore. But this did.
The AP reports:
Across the nation, dozens of sexual predators have been taking
higher education classes at taxpayer expense while confined by the
courts to treatment centers. Critics say they are exploiting a loophole
to receive Pell Grants, the nation's premier financial aid program for
low-income students.
Prison inmates are ineligible for Pell
Grants under a 1994 law. Students convicted of certain drug offenses
are also ineligible. But sexual predators qualify once they are
transferred from prison to treatment centers.
"This is the most
insane waste of taxpayer money that I have seen in my eight years in
Congress," said Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., who is pushing to stop the
practice. "It is a national embarrassment that we are wasting taxpayer
dollars for pedophiles and rapists to take college courses while
hardworking young people from lower-class families are flipping
hamburgers to pay for college."
Moreover, some institutions
report that sex offenders are putting the financial aid to questionable
uses by buying such things as clothes, a DVD player and music CDs -
sometimes, after they have dropped out of school. Pell Grants can
legally be put toward expenses that are education-related. But the
unused portion of a grant is supposed to be repaid when someone
withdraws from school.
Keller's plan would affect 20 states that
allow authorities to hold violent sex offenders indefinitely after they
have served their prison sentences. He predicted the measure would save
taxpayers millions.
Some say taking away the financial aid for
correspondence courses would be a mistake. They say education could help
sex offenders build stable lives and reduce their chances of committing
another crime if they are ever released.
