Louisiana State Senator Dan “Blade” Morrish is looking to slice the amount of money students receive for TOPS by proposing a cap on the popular program in the upcoming state legislative session.
The legislation, Senate Bill 34, would increase TOPS, which covers tuition at any state public university, by 10 percent in fall 2014, with the cap percentage changing each subsequent two years.
For example, if the University’s tuition was $10 this year, and TOPS covered the entire $10 amount, the legislation would change the amount of money TOPS covers to $11 at the start of the next school year — a 10 percent increase in the amount of money TOPS currently covers.
With universities raising tuition on a yearly basis, the amount of money the state pays for TOPS could be more than a 10 percent increase if the legislation isn’t passed.
For every two years after fall 2014, the amount of money TOPS covers with the proposed legislation would depend on the Consumer Price Index, a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website.
The Louisiana legislature would look at the CPI’s monthly data for the two-year period, and set the new percentage accordingly. That percentage would not apply to the preceding year, but to the initial TOPS coverage for the fall of 2014, whatever that price may be.
Though Morrish said TOPS is “one of the best programs the state has ever created,” he argued the amount of money Louisiana pays for TOPS is putting the state on a dangerous fiscal path.
LSU President F. King Alexander said he would need to see Morrish’s proposal before he would support or oppose it. He acknowledged TOPS and other programs like it across the country pose a challenging issue for state budgets.
Alexander also said the problems TOPS poses financially for Louisiana are “unintended consequences” of the program.
Michelle Landry, chemistry senior, expressed her disapproval of Morrish’s proposal, and said if TOPS did not exist, she would not have gone to college.
“Why would you want to cap spending on education when it’s the lifeblood of the economy?” Landry asked.
The following interactive shows a steady climb of TOPS money to a high of roughly $68 million in 2012, and a plummet to around $40 million in 2013. Click here for the mobile version.

“Why would you want to cap spending on education when it’s the lifeblood of the economy?”