According to the Southern Educational Board, the average cost for a low-income student to attend one year at a Louisiana public university makes up nearly half of a their family’s income.
Low-income opportunities for higher education have long been a topic of interest for Louisiana politicians, yet learning outcomes, educational opportunities and financial futures have remained among the worst in the nation. To address the flaws of our higher education system, we must start at the top—or TOPS, I should say—of Louisiana’s most popular aid programs.
In 1989, Louisiana passed a landmark state-funded, merit-based aid program called the Tuition Assistance Program. TAP granted scholarship awards to students with an ACT score of at least 18, a 2.5 GPA and a maximum family income of $25,000. 
This income cap reflects the program’s initial mission to prioritize low-income students, yet it was removed by 1997, the same year the program was renamed TOPS. Over the following two decades, appropriations for the program skyrocketed—by 2010, 81% of Louisiana student aid was provided through merit-based
Following removal of the income cap, middle- and upper-income students ballooned to represent more than 69% of all TOPS award recipients. The economically disadvantaged recipients for whom the financial aid had been originally intended were all but forgotten, leading lawmakers, thinktanks and lobbyists to discuss the future of TOPS.
One solution came from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, which encouraged Louisiana’s legislature to redistribute its TOPS funding to need-based programs while increasing appropriations for public universities and student’s personal needs.
Although this would solve the issue of missing need-based aid, it would disadvantage the many middle-income students have come to depend on TOPS. Their families, while earning livable salaries, are still largely unable to pay for ever-increasing college tuitions.
I am one of these students; without TOPS funding, I would not be here writing to you from the Reveille, as I wouldn’t be able to afford college!
ASHE’s proposed solution also failed to account for another gaping problem in the funding structure—the low bar set to receive a merit-based award.
As it currently stands, a student with an ACT score of a 20, one point below the national average, is eligible to receive TOPS funding.
A system legitimately based in merit would not grant aid to below-average students. Instead of rewarding mediocrity, Louisiana lawmakers should revert TOPS to its original form and once again help students in need.
TOPS should keep a merit-based element, but only award aid to students who truly perform above average. This change would liberate funding for need-based programs like Go Grant, which has consistently failed to receive the same funding as TOPS.
A quality education is within reach for millions of young Louisianans. TOPS, imperfect thought it may be, has provided that opportunity to many students.
With the right adjustments, TOPS, Go Grant and other government funding could continue to change the lives of countless more of our state’s most vulnerable and deserving students.
Canaan Charrier is a 19-year-old finance, religious studies, and international relations sophomore from Monroe, Louisiana.