First-year docs learning on the front line at Chabert
April 22, 2009Beulah Bergeron
April 24, 2009
The heavily-used scholarship program Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, which pays the college tuition for high school students in the state who achieve minimum grade point average and ACT scores, could have a cap placed on the amount of money given out each semester.
State Sen. Butch Gautreaux of Morgan City said he will file a bill in the upcoming session of the state Legislature beginning April 27 limiting the amount to $1,500 to $1,800 for each student.
In 2005, more than 43,000 college students in Louisiana received TOPS money, costing the state at least $110 million annually. Students in the program must attend a public college in Louisiana.
“Universities are struggling to maintain programs, much less grow them,” Gautreaux said. “This is in contrast to our goal of improving education. I’m sympathetic to the universities’ plight, but I’m also sympathetic to the students.”
Gautreaux said the capped amount would still cover most of today’s tuition rates and would relieve the state of paying out more when tuition costs rise.
“Anyone who does not agree that $1,500 to $1,800 is a significant stipend should go back a decade or so,” Gautreaux said, when TOPS did not exist.
“Parents would be thrilled to get that kind of stipend,” he said.
To qualify for TOPS, high school students must have at least a 2.5 grade point average and score a minimum 20 on the ACT. Students scoring at least 23 on the ACT receive a $400 stipend; students scoring 27 or higher are granted an $800 stipend.
Minimum GPAs must also be maintained in college to continue receiving TOPS funds. Higher college GPAs are required for students receiving more TOPS money.
New Orleans philanthropist Patrick Taylor was the main force behind establishing TOPS in 1989. Originally called Tuition Opportunity Program for Students, the name was changed by the state Legislature in 2008 to honor Taylor, who died in 2004, though the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation does not contribute money to the program.
TOPS was originally intended for lower- and middle-income students. Families having one child could not make more than $25,000 a year to qualify, but the maximum family income amount was dropped in 1997 by the state Legislature. The program is now entirely merit based.
Paying for TOPS is straining Louisiana’s higher education budget, Gautreaux said.
“At the state level, it has an effect on the general budget,” he said.
“Universities are going underfunded,” he said. ‘They’re unable to compete academically with others in the region. It takes away good teachers, good programs.”
Public universities in the state charge $700 less than the southern average, according to Gautreaux.
“How long can we have that and have a university system?” he said.
South Terrebonne High School counselor Christina Falgout, who has a daughter in the program, said capping TOPS could discourage students from striving academically.
If the $400 and $800 stipends are eliminated, students will take the ACT fewer times and will be less inclined to try for higher scores, Falgout said.
Students who could score higher may settle for the minimum required to receive TOPS, though students capable of scoring only the minimum would be less affected, she said.
“It could discourage upper level students from working hard at first, until they see that other scholarship material is available,” Falgout said.
Gautreaux, who does not sit on any Senate standing committee related to education, said TOPS creates a difficult situation for universities in the state. Not only is TOPS growing exponentially, he said, but the program politicizes the process of receiving a college education.
Gautreaux insists that TOPS should be continued, calling the program “one of those things to change the economic climate in Louisiana.” The bill cutting TOPS funding will be titled the “TOPS Preservation Act.”
He said the promise of TOPS for kindergarten through 12th graders is helping to boost grade point averages. However, “there’s no something for nothing,” he said.
“Parents call me. ‘Is my child getting TOPS?'” Gautreaux said. “My answer is going to be yes, but how long can we go on like this, I’m not sure.”
