Legislation Seeking To Make It Harder To Get TOPS Fails To Become Law
Baton Rouge Representative Franklin Foil ends his effort to raise the minimum GPA required for high school students to receive the TOPS scholarship. Foil told Senate Education a task force will be formed to examine TOPS and he'll wait to see their findings before pursing his legislation.
"I will come back next year after I have the benefit of that information from that task force, so at this time Mr. Chairman, I request that we voluntarily defer this bill for that reason," Foil said.
Foil's bill, which was approved by the House, would have raised the minimum GPA from 2.50 to 2.75 to qualify for TOPS. It would have gone into effect in four years. Foil says he proposed the bill, because the cost of the taxpayer scholarship continues to escalate.
"I believe in order to keep TOPS viable for the long run, we're going to have to make changes to the program for the long run," Foil said.