State Rep. Jerome Richard, an independent from Louisiana’s 55th District, is proposing a roster of bills for the current legislative session that could drastically influence higher education in Louisiana, one of which in particular University Student Government has endorsed.
Richard’s HB 142 could potentially redirect hundreds of millions of dollars to state higher education funding.
The legislation aims to reduce all state contracts by 10 percent, giving the tax dollars to Louisiana’s Higher Education Financing Fund instead.
Richard, a member of the House Education committee, said his bill is the same proposal state treasurer John Kennedy suggested in January, which Kennedy claimed would save $528 million for higher education.
Trey Schwartzenburg, SG speaker pro tempore, spoke highly of the legislator.
“Rep. Richard is a huge supporter of higher education and a huge ally of LSU in the legislature,” Schwartzenburg said. “This bill is a great effort to fix higher ed funding in the state of Louisiana.”
Among Richard’s other bills dealing with higher education are HB 74, HB 334 and HB 943.
HB 74 would eliminate lawmakers’ abilities to grant free tuition to Tulane students while HB 334 “prohibits a public postsecondary education management board member from awarding scholarships by virtue of his board membership.”
Richard said the latter bill would eliminate the University’s popular Board of Supervisors scholarship.
Though Richard acknowledged he attended LSU on a Board of Supervisors scholarship, he said he could not justify doing away with Tulane’s scholarship and not LSU’s.
“I’m not going to do one and not do the other,” Richard said. “As good as it is, I don’t think I should have that perk of awarding a 40-something-thousand-dollar scholarship.”
Richard’s HB 943 provides for additional tuition charges on a per-hour basis.
Richard said universities currently charge the same price for tuition regardless of the number of hours taken by any given student.
“If you take 12 hours, you pay for 12 hours. If you take 15 hours, you still pay for 12 hours,” Richard said.
Richard said his bill, if signed into law, would amend that inconsistency.
“It’s charging students for what they actually take,” Richard said.
“Rep. Richard is a huge supporter of higher education and a huge ally of LSU in the legislature.”