Legislation unhitches TOPS from tuition costs

The Senate Committee on Education, wrangling with a half dozen bills April 7 designed to transform the TOPS scholarship program, landed on one that unhooks the scholarships from tuition costs.
The committee also approved and sent to the full Senate for consideration were measures to raise the standards required to get the scholarship and one providing for a constitutional amendment to allow universities set their own tuition rates without legislative intervention.
TOPS, a popular scholarship for any Louisiana high school senior with a 2.6 GPA for the lowest award level, has since its inception has been wed to tuition rates. To keep control of TOPS costs, the Legislature reserved the right to approve tuition hikes, although recently it allowed small tuition increases on its own initiative.
Senate Bill 174, by Sen. Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, would set a baseline for the scholarship awards per student, which would not change from year to year without legislative action.
“This is not a cap,” Donahue said. “When programs are really successful like this they just can’t continue to grow forever. What it says is if you are a student and your stipend is, say $4,000, then it will continue on at the same rate throughout your education.”
Donahue’s bill seeks to level out the amount of funding Louisiana’s government pours into TOPS each year, climbing from about $100 million to $300 million in the last 15 years.
HB174 would make TOPS comparable to other merit scholarships handed out by institutions of higher learning or private parties on a four-year basis. The per-year stipend does not change through the four years even though the tuition might increase.
James Caillier, the executive director of the Taylor Foundation of New Orleans, which started the program and which still contributes a small portion of the annual funding, said the current amount awarded is sufficient.
“We think this is a good amount. We would not want to see a rise in the funding because of tuition (changes). The logical thing to do is to decouple it from tuition.”
Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge, authored a bill that would raise the requirements to obtain the TOPS scholarship. The program is divided into three levels of awards, with the minimum award covering a student’s tuition and the two high levels providing a monetary stipend in addition to their tuition.
Senate Bill 80, which was favorably passed on to the full chamber, proposes the GPA requirement for recipients of the two highest levels be raised from 3.0 to 3.25 and from 3.0 to 3.5 respectively.
“This would affect the current 8th grade class, not anyone currently in high school,” Claitor said. “It’s no so far out from what we see other states doing that we would raise the expectations. We have high expectation of these kids and that I have every expectation that we can meet it.”
Education Committee Chairman Dan Morrish, R-Jennings, also submitted a bill that found favor with the panel that would place on the ballot a constitutional amendment giving universities and colleges the freedom to set their own tuition amounts. The measure requires a two-thirds approval in both chambers.
Senate Bill 329 would allow schools to make adjustments year to year depending on what funding comes from the state and allow them to charge students more in tuition for courses that cost the university more money to offer.