Feds order colleges to stop checking criminal/discipline history.

[nightflight]

The Obama administration has ordered the nation’s colleges and universities to stop asking applicants about criminal and school disciplinary history because it discriminates against minorities. Institutions are also being asked to offer those with criminal records special support services such as counseling, mentoring and legal aid once enrolled. The government’s official term for these perspective students is “justice-involved individuals” and the new directive aims to remove barriers to higher education for the overwhelmingly minority population that’s had encounters with the law or disciplinary issues through high school.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2...-discipline-history-discriminates-minorities/

 

[Judahs_Lion]

And the political advertisements tell the American voter that Hillary will continue Barack's vision for America.

Obama's out of line here. And hopefully higher education institutions will ignore him. There's already obfuscation of rape statistics on campuses because donors and alumni and others involved in that cover don't want their institution to be known as, Rape-U.
Now we're suppose to send our children to a university that could have someone with a criminal background as long as their arm enrolled. There because they took advantage of federal incentive programs and loans, while also thinking to be protected by the new Obama-mandate that repeals campus security by hiding their criminal background.

And when that criminal impetus acts out on campus what next? What happens if our daughters are killed after they're raped in their dorm room? What then?

Apologies? Accountability from the man responsible for helping to make that possible not even an issue being he's out of office?
Lawsuits that drag on for years? Liability of campus officials who try to find a way to explain that a convicted criminal had a right to privacy? While our children on campus had no right to be secure?

 

[HannahT]

The Obama administration has ordered the nation’s colleges and universities to stop asking applicants about criminal and school disciplinary history because it discriminates against minorities.

So, is Obama saying that only minorities have criminal and school disciplinary history? If he isn't - what the heck is he saying? Non-minorities that have those don't get discriminated again due to that record? How can he back that up?

 

[Glass*Soul]

So, is Obama saying that only minorities have criminal and school disciplinary history? If he isn't - what the heck is he saying? Non-minorities that have those don't get discriminated again due to that record? How can he back that up?

That is not a direct quote from President Obama, so parsing it to figure out "what the heck he is saying" is an exercise in ludicrousness. It is actually a quote from an article giving someone from Judical Watch's take (or spin actually) on a document issued by the Dept. of Education, so at best we can set ourselves to wondering what the author of the article meant. I say spin because the article is not being at all measured in its wording. For instance the document is a set of suggested guidelines, not a mandate. If you would like to read it, it isn't terribly long and is much more nuanced than it is being made out to be.

http://www2.ed.gov/documents/beyond-the-box/guidance.pdf

Judah's lion might also want to read it before getting overly anguished over the pending murdering of daughters.

Everyone chill.

 

[Nithavela]

I don't get this.

Do students get excluded from higher education when they have had a run-in with the law?

I'm assuming that those people had already served their punishment and thus payed back their dues to the law, so to say. Why would you want to exclude them from higher education, to better themselves?

 

[Oafman]

I don't get this.

Do students get excluded from higher education when they have had a run-in with the law?

I'm assuming that those people had already served their punishment and thus payed back their dues to the law, so to say. Why would you want to exclude them from higher education, to better themselves?

Indeed. You would think people might welcome the idea that those who have had run ins with the law are getting an education. Making them much less likely to have run ins with the law in the future.

 

[trunks2k]

I don't get this.

Do students get excluded from higher education when they have had a run-in with the law?

Possibly. I don't remember having to say whether or not I had been convicted of committing any felonies or anything like that when I applied for college. Maybe it differs by school, and they could have enough of my information to do a cursory check themselves.

Asking about criminal history is a tricky subject. On one hand, your criminal past can be a legitimate issue. On the other hand, it can make it next to impossible for a person who has committed a felony to reintegrate back into society, and be more likely to commit a crime again. If I rob a store because I needed money, and when I get out of jail decide that I'm gonna make money an honest way but find that I'm immediately removed from consideration OK paying jobs that I would otherwise be qualified for due to having to check "yes" in one box, and have to take a poorly paying job that doesn't pay the bills, I have a good chance of going back to crime.

Around here, IIRC, there's a new city ordinance that prevents employers from asking about criminal history on job applications and/or doing background checks until much further along in the process. There's exceptions for certain occupations. This way people with a criminal past at least get an opportunity to show their crime isn't relevant rather than having their application immediately tossed.

 

[Tallguy88]

I don't get this.

Do students get excluded from higher education when they have had a run-in with the law?

I'm assuming that those people had already served their punishment and thus payed back their dues to the law, so to say. Why would you want to exclude them from higher education, to better themselves?

It doesn't matter. Felons are so discriminated against that they will never be able to put the degree to work. They'll be stuck working minimum wage jobs for the rest of their lives.

We need a directive making it illegal to discriminate based on criminal history if a certain length of time has elapsed since the conviction if they have committed no further criminal activity. As it stands now, people are punished indefinitely long after they have served their time and "paid their debt to society".

 

[nightflight]

Would Megan's Law still apply?

 

[brinny]

Feds order colleges to stop checking criminal/discipline history.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2...-discipline-history-discriminates-minorities/

this-is-so-weird.

It's almost smacks of criminality in and of itself to order it.

Who ARE these Feds, ordering such a thing, anyway?

LOL!

 

[Tallguy88]

Feds order colleges to stop checking criminal/discipline history.


this-is-so-weird.

It's almost smacks of criminality in and of itself to order it.

Who ARE these Feds, ordering such a thing, anyway?

LOL!

They didn't order anything. They made a suggestion.

 

[Tallguy88]

Would Megan's Law still apply?

Are you asking me?

 

[brinny]

They didn't order anything. They made a suggestion.

LOL!

ok, i'm confused....

 

[Tallguy88]

LOL!

ok, i'm confused....

Here's the actual document. It's all evidence, reasoning, and suggestions. There is no ordering anybody to do anything.

http://www2.ed.gov/documents/beyond-the-box/guidance.pdf

 

[brinny]

Here's the actual document. It's all evidence, reasoning, and suggestions. There is no ordering anybody to do anything.

http://www2.ed.gov/documents/beyond-the-box/guidance.pdf

Thank you.

It's similar then to the suggestion from the White House that schools change bathroom policies?

 

[Glass*Soul]

LOL!

ok, i'm confused....

Yeah. The article is confusing. The document is a guideline put out by the Dept. of Education encouraging colleges not to ask right off the top for people's arrest records, school disciplinary records and such, but to wait until later in the process so that people who have been involved in the justice system can at least have a decent chance of being accepted. It also suggests some ways that colleges can help people who have been involved in the justice system to succeed once they've been admitted as they might have particular needs. This is meant to help anyone who needs it regardless of race but will proportionally help more people of color just due to today's realities.

Add: Whoops. Tallguy already answered. Just call me redundant. LOL

 

[nightflight]

Are you asking me?

Asking anybody.

 

[Glass*Soul]

Thank you.

It's similar then to the suggestion from the White House that schools change bathroom policies?

It's different in that a school's bathroom policies can run up against Title IX which states that: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance," so there are more teeth there. Schools can refuse to follow the suggestions but their funding might be at stake.

Students who have been involved in the Justice System don't have similar protections.

 

[Loudmouth]

So, is Obama saying that only minorities have criminal and school disciplinary history? If he isn't - what the heck is he saying? Non-minorities that have those don't get discriminated again due to that record? How can he back that up?

Drug charges are a good example for comparison. Whites and blacks use marijuana at nearly the same rates, yet blacks are arrested for marijuana related crimes at 4 times the rate that whites are arrested for marijuana related crimes.

Also, getting your life on the right track by getting a college degree is one of the best things that any ex-con can do. It makes no sense to not give ex-cons a chance to better themselves.

 

[Arcangl86]

Drug charges are a good example for comparison. Whites and blacks use marijuana at nearly the same rates, yet blacks are arrested for marijuana related crimes at 4 times the rate that whites are arrested for marijuana related crimes.

Also, getting your life on the right track by getting a college degree is one of the best things that any ex-con can do. It makes no sense to not give ex-cons a chance to better themselves.

Though that is a bad example of course since having a drug conviction on your record disqualifies you for federal financial aid, which makes it far more difficult to go to school.