If the Louisiana Legislature adopts the proposed fiscal year 2019 budget now incorporated in House Bill 1, more than 50,000 high school seniors who plan to attend a state university or college next fall will receive four-fifths of the tuition assistance 2018’s graduates were allocated.
The proposed budget earmarks $233 million – or 80 percent – of the $298 million needed to fully fund the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS).
The Louisiana House Thursday rejected a proposal to fully fund students in three of four existing TOPS categories while creating a new classification that would drastically reduce the scholarship for about 15,000 students with average grades who do not qualify for federal Pell grants.
House Bill 399, sponsored by Rep. Gary Carter, D-New Orleans, was introduced with 25 co-sponsors but was shot down in a 70-22 vote that followed one of a half-dozen lock-outs staged during a long, often testy day in the chamber.
A lock-out is a quorum call that requires legislators to immediately “vote” that they are present. Those who do not respond quickly are “locked out” from voting on the measure being considered.
As it turned out, even if the locked-out 13 legislators in the 105-seat body voted, it would not have mattered.
Carter introduced his proposal as a “hybrid approach” to funding the scholarship program rather than with an across-the-board cut when the Legislature does not fully fund the program.
“It would be in a bipartisan manner, in a holistic sort of way,” he said.
Carter said the “prioritization” would only be applied when the Legislature does not fully funds TOPS.
But in fully funding about 10,000 students with 2.5 grade point averages (GPA) who qualify for Pell grants – children from lower-income households – while allocating only 28 percent of tuition for 2.5 GPA students from middle and upper income families, Carter’s bill was quickly mired in the partisanship he claimed it avoided.
“This will result in a fundamental change in the TOPS program,” said Rep. Polly Thomas, R-Metairie. “TOPS is merit-based, not needs-based. What your bill is attempting to do is put a needs-based component” into the program.
Thomas said Pell grants address financial needs and Louisiana offers “needs-based” assistance through its Go grant program. Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance (LOSFA) Executive Director Dr. Sujuan W. Boutté opposes the bill, she said.
“There is a needs-based program, but not really,” Carter said, noting the Legislature allocates only $28 million in assistance to low-income students.
He maintained the bill is merit-based because it would fully fund the 26,000 highest-achieving students regardless of financial status while helping average students who come from “challenging circumstances.”
Carter said students who qualify for Pell grants draw federal money into the state’s university system. That money is counted against eligibility for other “needs-based” assistance and, therefore, actually stretches dollars more.
That is why Alabama, Arkansas and “especially Texas” schools aggressively recruit low-income students in Louisiana, he said.
“They know they will qualify for those Pell grant dollars,” Carter said. “They steal those kids from us.”
But many didn’t see it that way, especially Republicans who said Carter’s bill would penalize middle class families that don’t qualify for assistance.
Rep. Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs, said trimming the scholarship from 80 percent, as now proposed in HB 1, to 28 percent for students from middle class households “will absolutely stop some people from being able to afford college.”
“Two kids who make the same GPA would not be treated equally under this bill,” said Rep. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, noting “students in college could have their TOPS money affected” as well as high school seniors.
“How do you protect those kids with the highest academic scores and how do you protect those kids who come from tough economic circumstances?” Carter asked.
Rep. John Bagneris, D-New Orleans, disagreed.
“Needs-based, that is what TOPS started out as,” Bagneris said. “You, as a Legislature, changed it to merit-based.”