As the state’s higher education budget shrinks and tuition increases, Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville, plans to propose a bill in this spring’s legislative session that will use two main measures to reform TOPS, which thousands of students rely on each year to pay for their education.
Harrison’s bill, if passed, would require students who lose TOPS to pay back the money they received if they fail to maintain TOPS requirements, which stipulates a minimum GPA for each tier of the program.
When the state uses taxpayers’ money to make an investment in students’ education, students have a responsibility to honor their end of the deal by committing to academic excellence, Harrison said.
“It’s a loan from the state that’s being abused. If they do fail within the first few years, the students and parents must pay the state back,” Harrison said. “The state is giving students this opportunity, and we hope that they would recognize that.”
As tuition grows, it places a greater burden on legislators to make a decision about what direction TOPS should take, said University Director of External Affairs Jason Droddy.
Droddy said TOPS is “immensely popular,” a fact that makes passing a bill like Harrison’s “very difficult in the near term.”
Harrison said that, much like a loan, students should not accept TOPS if they have no intention of rising to its required academic standards.
“[Students] shouldn’t begin attending a university where they won’t excel,” Harrison said. “If that deters people from going to certain schools, I hope that happens. Getting a degree is most important.”
The bill’s second measure would cap the amount of TOPS money students can receive from the state. Harrison said the cap would probably be the equivalent of four years of LSU tuition.
Harrison has written three similar bills regarding a TOPS cap in past years, but they all failed to pass. Harrison said the deteriorating budget situation makes him more optimistic about the bill’s passage.
“At the rate we’re going now, we won’t be able to continue this program for more than two more years,” Harrison said. “Our losses are substantial. We’re losing faculty and students, and we have to show some fiscal responsibility.”
More than $1.6 billion has been spent on TOPS since the program began in 1998, according to the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance’s TOPS Payment Summary.
TOPS funding comes from two sources: the state general fund, which is supported by taxes, and the Millennium Trust Fund that endows money from tobacco settlement proceeds.
Harrison said he is concerned primarily with the use of taxpayer money wasted when it pays tuition bills for students who don’t take their education seriously.
“We have to protect the taxpayers’ dollars that are being spent,” Harrison said. “Look at this from their perspective.”
About 34 percent of TOPS students lose their awards at some point, according to a TOPS report published by the Louisiana Board of Regents.
“I care about our future. Young people have to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” Harrison said.
Harrison said the bill would not work retroactively, and it would be phased in so only students who earn TOPS after the bill passes would be affected.
Many university presidents in the state have spoken with Harrison about their support for the bill, Harrison said.
