The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee says the state does have enough money to fund the TOPS program. If so this would avoid a potential disaster for the state's colleges and universities.
It doesn't look as if Louisiana's TOPS program is completely dead. However, it's reincarnation could look a whole lot different than the original model.
At least 15 bills proposed by the Louisiana House and Senate address the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, which ballooned into a $235 million program after starting out at around $40 million in the late 1990s.
Governor Jindal wants to make TOPS more soldier-friendly. Under current law, students have one year from the time they graduate high school to be able to receive TOPS.
Governor Bobby Jindal has expressed his opposition to a recommendation to restructure the TOPS program to be the same for all schools instead of calculating by the tuition.
The new plan would set two separate levels of TOPS. The first would be for community colleges and the second for Universities
The plan, set forth by the higher education Governance Commission was rejected by Governor Jindal aft
A constituational amendment that seeks to dedicate more dollars for the
merit-based TOPS scholarship program moves closer to final legislative passage as it was approved today by the House Appropriations Committee.
The House Appropriations Committee has cut nonessential spending across state agencies and raided a state economic development fund to balance next year's budget.
At the Statehouse, the House Appropriations Committee approved legislation yesterday that would permit tobacco settlement money to be used to help fund Louisiana's TOPS college scholarship program.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal's $24.9 billion budget would cut spending on education programs for at-risk youth, state employees, parks and museums, and social services.