by Josh Rittenberg

Kicking off the PPR blog, very exciting times. Well, I’ll jump right into it. I had the opportunity today to ask Secretary of Education Duncan and a panel of congressman a question about the The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 that congress will most likely be passing into law in the coming weeks. Lets be honest here there is no real legitimate criticism of this bill, it saves immense amounts of money, expands federal aid programs, and helps to further improve the shabby state of education in this country.

I took a look around to see if I could find any legitimate concerns about this bill. Lo and behold, Fox News had posted a trademark inane opposition article: Drug Offenders to get Aid under new Obama Bill. Surprise surprise, the title is misleading.

What that particular measure does is repeal a former amendment that stripped a student of their federal loans if caught with possession of illegal drugs; or in the words of the good men and women of Fox “giving drug addicts federal loans and removing a deterrent to drug use”.

When the time came for my question I tossed the secretary a softball. I asked him how he and the administration respond to the “Drug Addicts and Drug Deterrence” claims being made from opponents to the bill. Unfortunately the secretary and congressmen responded in the same timid non-committal way that is slowly becoming a trademark of the current administration (See: health care debate).

The Secretary basically told me that there was opposition congress action to keep the old provisions and that it would all be worked out in congress with the administration waiting to see how things worked out.

How can that be the answer?! The democratic leadership supported removing the harsh punishments for a reason. You cannot strip a student of their right to an education if they are caught smoking a joint in the name of drug deterrence. What is a student going to do when he or she can no longer go to school because the government stopped paying for his college because of drug use? More drugs seem to be the obvious answer. Also the punishments were completely disproportionate to the crime. A student caught using drugs needs help and support, not to have their life flushed down the toilet extinguishing any hope of an education.

But the truth of the matter is that it isn’t just this particular issue that irks me. Its how easy the Obama administration seems to give up and concede points to the opposition when faced with bumps in the road. Sometimes it’s over small matters like the clause concerning drug use in the Student Aid Act, but other times the concessions are far larger, like a public health care option in the health car reform bill .

The continued concessions and hesitancy of the Obama administration is very troubling. It’s a trend that, if continued, could spell disaster for the Obama administration.