Nearly 3,000 Wisconsin students have been denied financial aid for college under a federal law that remains controversial even as it undergoes reform.
The law prohibits people who have been convicted of selling or possessing drugs from receiving Pell Grants and other forms of federal financial aid. Since 2000, it has been used to refuse assistance to more than 189,000 needy students, including 2,897 in Wisconsin, according to a state-by-state breakdown released for the first time by the U.S. Department of Education.