The Tuition Task Force — comprised of students, community leaders and Louisiana Board of Regents members — is working to gather information on improving tuition and translating it to higher education through the Louisiana Sate Legislature.
The Task Force is divided into three groups focusing on three different matters surrounding tuition, including access and affordability, fiscal stability and viability and tuition strategies to promote student success and institutional performance.
The groups are separated into three subject areas with a higher education policy maker to aid discussion, with topics ranging from TOPS standards to tuition authority for managing boards. These discussions will translate to recommendations in a report to the legislature.
A report from the task force meeting will be submitted to the legislature by Jan. 9, 2014, 60 days before the start of the 2014 regular session of the Louisiana State Legislature. 
Rep. Stephen Ortego, D-Carenco 39, said the committee can turn in any report it wants, but he would like the legislature to be presented with new ideas from a fresh perspective.
Ortego’s goal is to find out how to regulate tuition so it will benefit students the most.
“My hope is that there is some out-of-the-box thinking that comes from the report,” Ortego said. “If we invest in higher education, we’re investing in the people of Louisiana and our future — building a better society, better community, a stronger community.”
Ortego said these issues in higher education carry importance given a lack of funding for higher education for the state, making for skyrocketing tuition rates.
He said TOPS increases accessibility, but for the students who do not receive TOPS, tuition has almost doubled within the last four years.
Katara Williams, assistant commissioner for public affairs at the Louisiana Board of Regents, said the Regents are always doing in depth studies and recommending findings benefitting higher education to                                              the legislature. 

“My hope is that there is some out of the box thinking that comes from the report.”