Future spending problems in Louisiana can be curbed by changing TOPS into a self-sustaining program.
TOPS assists those seeking a college education in Louisiana, but it is a drain on the budget. According to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, TOPS is expected to cost the state $250 million this year, increasing to $387 million by 2018-19 academic year.
With more than a one-billion dollar budget shortfall this year, TOPS is part of the reason Louisiana is in financial trouble. TOPS should change to a loan system based off financial need, graduation and future employment.
Students who graduate within the four years allotted by TOPS and enter the workforce quickly within a year should pay back all the money they received over a five- to 10-year period. These students should not be penalized with interest because they utilize the program correctly and contribute to the economy with their degree.
The program throws money down the drain every time a student decides to drop out or get a useless degree. With a change to the program, students who receive TOPS funding and drop out before completion of the degree would have to pay back the loan plus compounding interest starting a year after leaving college.
In a 2013 poll by The Chronicle of Higher Education, the four-year graduation rate of students attending a four-year, public college throughout Louisiana was only 20 percent. According to a College Portrait statistic, 80 percent of LSU’s students were in-state students.
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune reported in 2014 that since 2003, 33 percent of students initially receiving TOPS lost the reward because of losing eligibility. Between the graduation rate and the amount of students losing TOPS, there is a lot of money gone to waste.
Those who choose to get a useless degree and a job outside their major, within a year after completion of their degree, should have to pay back the scholarship with compounding interest as well. This should be enacted for every degree, but students majoring in useless degrees will be less likely to find work out of college.
Useless degrees should be considered degrees with the highest unemployment rate out of college. In 2014, The Huffington Post concluded film/video and photographic arts, fine arts, philosophy, religious studies, anthropology, archeology, commercial art, graphic design and history majors that graduated recently had an unemployment rate above 10 percent — the highest rates according to the study.
Any major with an unemployment rate above the average for recent graduates should be considered useless. The degrees considered useless will change over time, but students should look at what they are going into before going to college.
Many people drop out of college because of cost of living expenses and other fees. TOPS recipients should also have the option to receive extra money to pay for living expenses and other fees if they reach GPA requirement and opt for it.
Extra state funding for the program should be made possible by income the state receives from the loans.
Extra funding through TOPS will allow lower class students to have an easier time making it through college. Paying back the loan to the state will be easier
after graduating instead of having to find the money and time during college.
Implementing this program as soon as possible will allow TOPS to become self-sustaining and even profitable if enough people make poor decisions with their college careers. A new generation of students entering their freshman year of college would have to be grandfathered into the new system.
People will think twice about how they approach college in Louisiana, and the state’s budget will no longer suffer for the decisions of inexperienced young adults. Making TOPS a self-sustaining program will be one of the first steps to improving the budget in Louisiana.
Garrett Marcel is a 21-year-old petroleum engineering senior from Houma, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @Gret419.