Citzens must sue for public information

It's been a long day and I have to go to bed immediately so I can do it again tomorrow, so just a quick news brief from the DARE generation.

SSDP, in conjuction with the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, filed suit today against the U.S. Department of Education over a Freedom of Information Act dispute. All we want is a state-by-state breakdown of the 175,000 students who have lost financial aid to the HEA Drug Provision. But even though SSDP is a nonprofit organization, the government won't give us the data for free because, they claim, it could lead to drug legalization and that we might somehow profit!

The Department of Education want $4,000 to produce public records to a non-profit organization representing public interests. They erroneously claim that providing the information is not in the public interest, but instead could further the commercial interests of those who might profit from the legalization of drugs.

One wonders what possible profit they expect SSDP would make from this information. I mean I can't think any possible way a list of people who have been denied educational aid would be profitable. It's not like there's a large market for demographical info on the uneducated drug convicted population. What a sham.