TOPS bills resisted

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Apr 2, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:38 a.m.

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A new legislative session means new efforts to change the popular TOPS college scholarship program, including a proposed income limit and a plan to make those who lose the grants pay them back.

The overall annual budget for the Tuition Opportunity Program for Students — called TOPS — also must be increased by about $8 million if proposed 3-5 percent tuition increases are approved, according to state estimates.

House Speaker Jim Tucker and education committee leaders said they support tuition and TOPS increases, but not “philosophical” TOPS changes.

“The Legislature has been so quick to reject any changes to TOPS, I hope the new Legislature will be open to new ideas,” said state Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Grosse Tete, noting the high turnover after term limits set in last year.

Marionneaux wants to eliminate students from receiving TOPS if their parents’ household income is $250,000 or more.

“They can afford it,” Marionneaux said of his Senate Bill 209 meant to amend the 11-year-old TOPS.

The legislation follows the philosophy that states should not subsidize college educations for those who do not need financial assistance.

Marionneaux’s more extreme legislation — SB 208 — would turn TOPS into a “loan forgiveness program” that would require students to pay back the full scholarship amounts if they fail to maintain the grade and full-time student requirements to maintain TOPS.

The state should not let students keep the money if they do not hold up their end of the bargain.

“You pay it back if you flunk out,” Marionneaux said.

State Commissioner of Higher Education Joseph Savoie said many students who lose TOPS funding still stay in school, although he did not have specific numbers.

House Education Committee Chairman Don Trahan, R-Lafayette, said neither he nor “tradition” is on Marionneaux’s side.

“There are two sacred cows in the Legislature: the homestead exemption and TOPS,” Trahan said.