May 14, 2004


The Honorable John A. Boehner, Chairman
Committee on Education and the Workforce
U.S. House of Representatives
2181 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Re: College Access & Opportunity Act (H.R. 4283)

Dear Chairman Boehner:

Thank you for including in the College Access & Opportunity Act (H.R. 4283) several key provisions to improve safety on our nation's college and university campuses. We were especially pleased to see that your bill retains provisions in the Higher Education Act suspending student eligibility for financial aid upon conviction of a drug offense and clarifies that it applies in those cases where the offense occurred while the student was receiving aid.

Substance abuse on our nation's college and university campuses is an epidemic. It is also often a factor in even more serious crimes such as murder, rape, and aggravated assault. When taxpayers subsidize a student's drug habit, we all are paying to put other innocent students' health and safety at risk. This can not be tolerated, and we strongly support your effort to retain and clarify this very important provision in the law.

We were also pleased to see that H.R. 4283 would extend the authorization of important alcohol and other drug abuse prevention grant funding for another five years. This funding is very much needed and could be even more beneficial if it included a "peer education" and high school outreach component. We've found that by the time many students get to college they already have a substance abuse problem, which the colleges then have to deal with. By partnering colleges with their area high schools and having college students do presentations to high school students, we can help prevent these problems before the students ever get to college.

Our single concern with the bill is making sure that the provision excluding foreign institutions from campus security reporting obligations under the Jeanne Clery Act applies only to foreign-owned institutions located abroad. We would greatly appreciate a clarification of this point either in a Congressional Record statement and/or Committee Report language so that the U.S. Department of Education will have clear guidance on how to implement this.

Again thank you for sponsoring these needed provisions. Should we be able to be of any assistance to you with regard to supporting them, please do not hesitate to call on us.

Warm Regards,

Connie & Howard Clery, Co-Founders

cc: Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon
Sen. Arlen Specter