Dardenne: TOPS Only Funded At 93% For Fall Semester

Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne announces that TOPS students will have to pay a small portion of their scholarship for the fall semester. When the second special session ended, lawmakers approved legislation so that TOPS students would be fully covered in the fall semester, but Dardenne says the actual breakdown will be.

“It will be about 93% funding for TOPS in the first semester and 47% in the spring semester,” Dardenne said.

Dardenne says 93% of a TOPS scholarship will be covered for the fall semester, while students will have to pay for over half of their tuition for the spring semester.

“There’s going to be some sticker shock come the second semester when students are registering and realizing that those on TOPS scholarships are going to get a fairly significant haircut on what they thought the amount may be,” Dardenne said.

Dardenne says it’s the governor’s hope that when lawmakers return to Baton Rouge next spring, they’ll be able to allocate more money, so TOPS students in future years are not hit with a bill for tuition.

“I think what you’ll see going forward is a commitment to TOPS. We thinks TOPS is a tremendous program, and it needs to be fully funded, and we’re going to want to maintain it,” Dardenne said.