Louisiana’s legislature is cutting TOPS funding to balance the budget.
Turning TOPS into a loan program is the best solution to save money, but the current plan to raise the minimum ACT requirement to a 26 isn’t a bad idea. Louisiana should have raised the requirements a long time ago.
TOPS is supposed to give promising students a reward for academic success, but instead the program turned into a monstrous machine where anyone can get the state-run scholarship because the minimum ACT requirement is only a 20.
From personal experience, I achieved a 24 on the ACT on the first try in 10th grade without studying or preparing. I hadn’t even taken advanced math courses at the time, yet I was able to score four points higher than the minimum requirements.
Maybe not everyone is as intelligent as me, but why should they get a free ride in college if they aren’t intelligent or don’t care enough to score higher? Wasting money on potential dropouts or philosophy majors is a sure way to bankrupt a state.
Students around the state should change their mindset that college is for everyone. Louisiana residents are paying to give welfare to sometimes undeserving and lazy students.
A score of 28, like the previously suspected cutoff score if lawmakers couldn’t secure enough funding, sounds like a reasonable cutoff point for TOPS. Anyone who wants to go to college but performs poorly on standardized tests will spend the time necessary to score high.
Naturally intelligent people will not have a hard time scoring a 28 as well. But, Gov. John Bel Edwards’ plan to put the TOPS cutoff at a 26 could give students room for error or bad tests.
We should also find a way to increase the amount of money given through the awards due to the rising cost of college. If the state is going to help students with TOPS, the students shouldn’t have to be in debt coming out.
If any state funding is left after the TOPS cuts, it could be used to help students in the future by improving the Louisiana education system or creating free ACT preparation programs around the state. The core problem isn’t a ACT minimum requirement. It is the terrible public school system in Louisiana.
If we improved the school systems, more students would be able to make a 28 ACT score. The state would be better off as a whole if more TOPS funds were reallocated to fund secondary education.
People will always protest and complain changes when it comes to TOPS, but the program has grown out of control. Students used to having their hands held and given welfare will have to grow up and face the facts.
If you can’t make it to college, you don’t belong there.
Garrett Marcel is a 22-year-old petroleum engineering senior from Houma, Louisiana.