BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s higher education policy-making board recently toughened admissions criteria for public universities. But the chairman of Louisiana's Senate education committee filed legislation aimed at undoing financial penalties added for schools violating the standards.

Democrat Sen. Cleo Fields argues the Board of Regents doesn’t have authority to strip money from universities that repeatedly breach admissions criteria. He wants lawmakers to declare the board can’t follow through on the penalties. Lawmakers will consider this in the legislative session beginning March 9.

The board added the threat of financial penalties for campuses that disobey minimum admission standards in a rewrite approved last week.

(Story written by MELINDA DESLATTE/AP)

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