BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Treasurer John Kennedy believes the state’s public four-year universities should be governed by one board to help cut costs, but he said Monday he opposes any suggestion to limit spending under the TOPS free college tuition program.
Those ideas, along with the treasurer’s opposition to college tuition increases for students, put Kennedy at odds with the leader of the higher education system that includes the state’s flagship university.
LSU System President John Lombardi has said a single governing board won’t solve the budget woes of campuses, he thinks scholarships under TOPS — the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students — should be capped, and he thinks tuition costs should grow.
Without naming Lombardi, Kennedy essentially told the Press Club of Baton Rouge that he disagrees with Lombardi’s stances on all three hot-button topics.
As a member of the Commission on Streamlining Government, Kennedy recommended that Louisiana should do away with the LSU, Southern University and University of Louisiana system boards and put all three systems under the oversight of the Board of Regents. The current structure pits university systems against each other to compete for funding, he said.
“They protect their systems, and they protect their turf,” said Kennedy, who chairs an advisory panel to the streamlining commission that is looking at ways to shrink state spending amid years of projected budget shortfalls.
The consolidation idea, backed by Kennedy’s advisory panel, will be considered by the full streamlining commission next week. A separate commission looking specifically at cost-cutting in higher education hasn’t discussed the topic so far.
Lombardi, in a recent luncheon speech in Baton Rouge, tossed aside suggestions that consolidating the university systems’ governing boards would significantly cut costs. He said “reorganizing the way people sit around the table” isn’t a solution to budget problems, but “an escape from the real problem.”
The LSU System chief also backed tuition increases for students, with boosted financial aid for students who need help — and a freeze in the amount of money a student can receive through TOPS.
TOPS covers the full cost of tuition for any Louisiana student who meets high school course standards, graduates with a midlevel grade point average and reaches certain benchmarks on the college entrance exam — without regard to a family’s income or the student’s ability to pay.
The program costs more than $130 million a year and rising, and any attempt to increase college tuition inevitably becomes a legislative budget debate because any boost in tuition costs causes an increase in the cost of the TOPS program.
Lombardi said TOPS should be a fixed tuition award, disconnected from the cost of tuition.
“TOPS is a terrific idea that’s passed its moment in its specific form,” Lombardi said in his recent speech.
But Kennedy said he wouldn’t support such a move to save the state money, saying it could discourage people from going to college.
“I look forward to the day (TOPS) costs $232 million a year,” Kennedy said.
 
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