The federal government denied financial aid to 9,180 Florida college students from 1998 to August 2005 because they admitted having been convicted of either selling or possessing drugs. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia ranked higher than Florida in percentage of overall applicants denied financial aid. The law denying aid to convicted students -- pushed through in 1998 by U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, (R-Ind.) -- was changed last year to apply only to students caught getting high while in college.
