TOPS Was and Remains a Great Idea for LA.

TOPS Has Been Under Attack by Those Who Want Plan Need-Based, Instead of Merit-Based

by Woody Jenkins, Editor

CENTRAL — Louisiana’s TOPS scholarship program has been under attack this year — in the press and in the halls of the legislature.

Basically, the opponents of TOPS want the scholarships to be granted based on need, rather than merit.

However, as one of the original authors of the TOPS program in the Louisiana Legislature, I believe that TOPS is a great idea for Louisiana just the way it is.

TOPS provides free tuition to U.S. citizens and legal residents of Louisiana who graduate from a public or private Louisiana high school or home study program with a good grade-point average and a high score on the ACT test.

There are several levels of TOPS scholarships, and the highest level requires a 3.0 grade-point average and at least a 27 on the ACT test.  This allows the student to get the maximum scholarship, which can be almost $6,000 a year for tuition and mandatory fees at a school like LSU.  Here were our goals in passing the TOPS program:

• Give Louisiana students a strong incentive to study hard in high school (as indicated by their grade point average) and actually learn a lot (as indicated by their ACT test scores).

• Give every student, not just those in poverty, a way to go to college without amassing a tremendous debt that burdens them for years into the future.

• Reward students for doing well in college by requiring them to maintain a 3.0 average in college in order to maintain the scholarship at the highest level.

• Encourage our top Louisiana high school graduates to go to college or university right here in Louisiana and not move out of state (since TOPS can only be used in-state).

Since we passed the original program, more than 100,000 outstanding Louisiana high school students have earned TOPS scholarships and stayed right here in Louisiana for their college education.

The vast majority of TOPS scholars have also stayed here in Louisiana after graduation — thereby fighting the “brain-drain” that has plagued Louisiana.

For many middle-income families, the TOPS scholarship is one of the few things they feel they will ever get back from their state taxes.  A means test requiring students to show their parents are under the poverty line would destroy TOPS, remove the financial incentive now provided for all students to make good grades and achieve a high ACT score, and encourage the brain drain out of our state.

TOPS should not be just another welfare program.  TOPS should stay a program that every child in Louisiana can qualify for if he works hard and does what it takes.