The Daily Reveille recently published an article about the Louisiana Budget Project (LBP) report on TOPS.
Every suggestion and observation made in the article has been debated ad nauseum over the past 10 years, with the debate growing louder most recently due to the state’s budget issues.
It argues that TOPS is too often being awarded to the rich and that the program’s GPA requirements should be raised.
These ideas, and more, were debated in the “Cut the Fat” Report, which was presented to the state Senate’s Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget in 2001. Some of the facts presented in the committee’s report are intriguing: 42 percent of those who received the minimum TOPS award in 1998 and 1999 lost their eligibility. Around two-thirds of these students started college with ACT scores between 19 and 22, while, “forfeiture rates are lower among TOPS students … [with] higher grades and ACT scores.”
One solution for preserving TOPS would be the LBP’s suggestion of raising the GPA requirement. Its other critique, which would put an income cap on TOPS, makes little sense.
According to Chancellor Michael Martin, TOPS aims “to put a college education within reach of every child, to reward hard work in high school, and to keep the state’s best and brightest students here in Louisiana.”
A recent study by the Institute of Higher Education concluded that “merit scholarship programs … stanch the migration of ‘best and brightest’ students to other states.”
Using family income to disqualify students from TOPS would only encourage the brain drain.
One thing the LBP does not suggest is promoting accountability. TOPS has long been plagued by the issue of money lost to students who do not complete their education. What if we made such individuals pay back their TOPS dollars? Chancellor Martin himself said, “If you have your own skin in the game, you are more inclined to take it seriously,” noting that some students “use [TOPS] without necessarily being fully committed because there is no real cost to them.”
If students knew there would be a penalty for not making proper use of their scholarships, we would see less waste of TOPS dollars.
Perhaps a more feasible plan would be one that was suggested by the “Cut the Fat” report 10 years ago: “Require students to find their own financing for their first year of college. If they finish the freshman year with full class schedules and good grades, they could receive TOPS money for subsequent years. If they graduate, they could be reimbursed for the freshman year.”
If Louisiana wants to solve the TOPS problem, we need to act soon. With a decision 10 years in the making, such action is long overdue.
Chris Williams
French and history senior
 
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