The recent budget crisis has been hitting the state of Louisiana hard, and education has taken an especially crippling hit. High school students have been re-evaluating their college decisions after TOPS was suspended earlier this month.
Catholic High School senior Joe Stassi has opened up to out-of-state colleges since the state of TOPS has been hanging in the balance. These colleges have been drawing him in despite the ease of staying at home.
“Before all this happened, LSU was one of my top choice schools,” Stassi said. “Now that I’m not too sure about how much aid I would get from TOPS, I’m definitely considering some out-of-state schools.”
Stassi has received full-ride scholarships from the University of Alabama and the University of Oklahoma. TOPS would have paid for the majority of his tuition, but he said he’s confident he will end up at either Alabama or Oklahoma next year.
Despite his early decision, Stassi said he wants to see a full renewal of TOPS for students staying in-state and for financial need-based students.
“I really hope to see that they bring it back so that so many people do get a change to go to college without so much debt because it’s a great program we have here,” Stassi said.
The Director of College Counseling at Catholic High Sherry Brouillette told current seniors to wait until after the special legislative session on March 9 to make their decisions. Many seniors who would never have thought twice about staying in-state are starting to rethink where they will end up.
“It’s become such that they maybe weren’t looking out-of-state but feel like they should now to keep their options open,” Brouillette said.
Brouillette explained that out-of-state colleges have been monitoring the situation closely and are doing whatever they can to make college affordable to students who are leaning towards moving away.
About 84 percent of seniors at Catholic High qualified for TOPS, according to Brouillette. With so many students affected, these next few weeks are bound to be stressful.
“They’re very nervous because there’s a lot of talk, a lot of speculation,” Brouillette said. “The seniors are wondering if TOPS is even going to be there for them. And if it is, in what capacity?