New TOPS legislation will award students who return to Louisiana for graduate school after studying in another state and studying high-demand fields.
House Bill 612 by Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, would offer TOPS exclusively to students who have graduated from out-of-state universities accredited by the U.S. Department of Education and return to the state for graduate degrees.
Under the legislation students must maintain standards for the initial undergraduate award in a Louisiana college or university and have graduated from high school during the 2008-09 school year or after.
Jason Droddy, director of external affairs, said about 10 percent of students return to Louisiana for advanced degrees.
“The general assumption is that student aid would draw more students,” Droddy said.
Additionally, the bill states the tuition amount awarded should not exceed amounts determined by the administrating school and will equal the tuition for postgraduate study or undergraduate enrollment by the highest cost of a public university.
The bill was passed, moved to the Senate and read to the Committee on Education.
HB 612 was re-engrossed and regulations changed so that the post-grad TOPS award would only apply to jobs defined as four or five stars by the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
For example, on the Louisiana Workforce Commission website, computer and information systems managers and petroleum engineers are both five-star ranking occupations.
According to the legislation, if the student is completing his or her degree and ranking changed while the student is in school, the student would still be eligible for the award.
Droddy said because the bill will only cover four- and five-star jobs, the real question is whether the bill will also cover medical school and veterinary school as it does a master’s in chemical engineering.
Mathematics master’s student David Ali said he agrees with giving TOPS to graduate students, however he does not think some fields should qualify and not others.
“I think it should be like regular TOPS in the state,” Ali said.
Ali is a Louisiana resident and received his undergraduate degree from the University, so he would not qualify for the award.
Droddy said there is a misconception that the money that should have gone to the students when they went out of state was saved for this funding.
Funding for the award would come from the general fund or the TOPS fund, Droddy said.
