Lombardi: Cap TOPS scholarships

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Oct 27, 2009 - Page: 1A

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LSU System President John Lombardi said Monday the state must cap merit-based TOPS scholarships and not give them to the wealthy.

He also said the Legislature must give up tuition authority and that the state will suffer if student enrollments are too quickly shifted into community colleges.

Lombardi and other university leaders spoke up to warn of “catastrophic budget reductions” during a meeting of the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Review Commission that is tasked with recommending ways to streamline and cut the budget of state colleges.

Gov. Bobby Jindal has asked the legislatively created Louisiana Postsecondary Education Review Commission, which meets again today, to recommend how to cut $146 million from colleges for the 2010-2011 year because of a state budget shortfall expected to hit $2 billion in 2012.

Lombardi said the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, or TOPS, has become a “state entitlement gift” that supports many students “with no demonstrated financial need.” He said TOPS “inadequately supports” financially needy students.

For students from families making more than $100,000 a year, Lombardi said, “Maybe you need to get a TOPS certificate, but maybe you don’t need the money.” The certificate can say, “You can walk on water,” Lombardi said, but it does not come with free tuition.

Louisiana students already have incentive to go to LSU because in-state tuition costs are much cheaper than going to college in another state, he said. LSU’s tuition is about $2,000 less than its peers at just more than $5,000 annually.

TOPS must be capped because it is tied to tuition, when tuition rises, TOPS goes up as well causing strain on the state budget, Lombardi said. But tuition must rise to help compensate for cuts to the universities’ budgets, he said.

Commission member and former LSU Chancellor James Wharton said most in Louisiana cannot afford LSU football tickets, much less college educations, without assistance.

“So to make it appear the campus can charge whatever it wants to — that’s misleading,” Wharton told Lombardi.

Wharton said tuition already is on the rise and the Legislature has approved things like excellence and operations fees that TOPS does not usually cover.

“It’s hard to manage with intermittent increases given the (lack of) resources,” University of Louisiana System President Randy Moffett said.

Louisiana is the only state that requires two-thirds legislative approval to increase tuition.