Lawmakers are again attempting to limit students’ TOPS awards.TOPS awards could be limited by at least two pieces of legislation to be debated in the legislative session beginning Monday. Another bill would require students who do not meet TOPS reattainment criteria to repay the award during their first two years.Senate Bill 86, authored by Sen. Butch Gautreaux, would cap TOPS awards at 90 percent of next semester’s tuition cost.The LSU Board of Supervisors approved a 5 percent tuition increase for next semester. Multiple bills in the coming session would allow institutions to increase tuition 10 percent for consecutive years. The bill would be effective Aug. 15, 2010, if passed.”This is the second time I authored it,” Gautreaux said. “The state is in real physical trouble. If we don’t do something to the amount of the award, we are going to lose it all together.”The intent of the proposal was to save TOPS, as the cost of the program will balloon with increasing tuition, Gautreaux said.A similar bill to place a cap on TOPS failed last year in committee.House Bill 490, authored by Rep. Joe Harrison, would cap TOPS at $1,600 for tuition or the tuition amount determined by the Louisiana Student Financial Assistance Commission beginning with the 2011-12 award through 2015-16 award year.Harrison couldn’t be reached for comment. Additional stipend awards aren’t affected by either bill.”The reason I am doing this is so we don’t lose TOPS altogether,” Gautreaux said. “I think 90 percent is a good deal.”Former Chancellor James Wharton said the caps would hurt the University by helping other schools in the state because the cap would still cover regional school’s tuition while leaving LSU’s tuition above the cap.”The regional colleges of Louisiana want the students out of LSU,” Wharton said. “Once you take cost out of the equation with TOPS, that only leaves quality, and students want to get the best for their money.”HB 994, also by Harrison, would require students who don’t meet the TOPS retention requirements to repay the award in their first two years of school beginning in the 2011 award year.This idea has been talked about in the past but never executed by legislators, Wharton said.He also said many students who lose TOPS go on to graduate, but now could not afford higher education if they lost TOPS and had to repay past awards.”We are concerned with the incentive effect on high school students,” Jason Droddy, assistant vice chancellor of Legislative and External Affairs said. “If a student thinks they are going to get a scholarship, they may work harder in high school than as if they are getting what can been seen as a loan.”—-Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]