18-04-2025
TOPS tweaks trouble cofounder Taylor: ‘Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water'
LSU's Memorial Tower rises above the trees on Monday, March 20, 2023, on Tower Drive in Baton Rouge, La. (Matthew Perschall / Louisiana Illuminator)
It had been many years since Phyllis Taylor, widow to the creator of the TOPS program, had sat behind the presentation desk of the Louisiana House Education Committee.
Her late husband, Patrick F. Taylor, a wealthy oilman who had served for many years on the LSU Board of Supervisors, is perhaps best remembered for creating the program that's now known as the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students. The program began with 183 students that Taylor personally paid tuition for. After this pilot's success, Taylor convinced the legislature to begin a state-financed version, which inspired similar programs in numerous other states.
Started in 1989, it pays a significant chunk of tuition costs for qualified Louisiana students who attend college at state colleges and universities. Hundreds of thousands of students have paid for college with TOPS, many who would have otherwise been unable to afford an education.
Every year, lawmakers debate tweaks to TOPS, some minor, some major. But Phyllis Taylor, a soft-spoken octogenarian philanthropist and one of the richest people in Louisiana, has refrained from weighing in — until this week.
What piqued Taylor's interest was House Bill 77 by Rep. Chris Turner, R-Ruston. It would create a flat rate for each TOPS award amount, rather than having a unique allotment for each school.
The new rate would mean students at LSU, LSU's two medical schools and the University of New Orleans would be paying more out of pocket, while students at other Louisiana schools would pay less.
The bill would also create a higher award amount for high-achieving students.
In its original state, Turner's bill – designed to keep high-performing students in Louisiana – would add around $50 million annually to the cost of the TOPS program. That's not a small sum as the state tightens its belt amid difficult fiscal times.
'I come to remind everyone that we want, by all means, to preserve TOPS, even if that means that some changes might have to be deferred for a later time, because I realized that the state of Louisiana is going to be under dire fiscal constraints,' Taylor said.
'There is more need than there is money,' she added.
Taylor made her position on Turner's bill clear; she's unhappy with the proposal that would hurt LSU students, who make up the majority of TOPS recipients in the state. She reminded the committee that while they may want to reward the best and brightest, TOPS was meant to provide an opportunity for all students – not just those with the best ACT scores.
'Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water and jeopardize a program as a whole in order to maybe provide for a few that might not be as contributing to our state as we need,' Taylor said.
The committee unanimously advanced Turner's legislation, though only after adding amendments that would partially close the gap for students at LSU's main campus and undergraduate programs at its medical school in New Orleans. Members also lowered the new award amount for high-achieving students from $12,000 to $11,300.
House Education Chairwoman Laurie Schlegel, R-Metairie, one of the co-authors on Turner's bill, said she believed the amendments would lower the TOPS cost increase from around $50 million annually to $30 million to $35 million.
Because it involves spending state money, the bill must receive a second hearing in the House Appropriations Committee, which oversees the state's budget.
Though Appropriations Chairman Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, acknowledged the need to keep the best and brightest in Louisiana, he said it would be very challenging to find the money to fund Turner's bill, especially as lawmakers are digging into couch cushions to find the change necessary to prevent a K-12 teacher pay cut.
'Before we go and we commit ourselves to more, I think we need to address what we currently have in front of us,' McFarland said.
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Turner said his bill is meant to address what he sees as inequities among Louisiana colleges in the amount of TOPS assistance available to their students.
'It wasn't fair to give this university more and not the other one,' Turner said in an interview. 'All the institutions would be treated equally.'
The bill is being sold as a market solution: the money follows the student, who can make a financial decision about how they would like to use it. But its critics say that choice could potentially disfavor the LSU flagship campus.
Currently, LSU students who receive TOPS pay about $5,000 out of pocket annually, while students at Louisiana Tech University, in Turner's district, pay $5,202.
If Turner's bill passes, the base-level amount, which approximately half of Louisiana TOPS students receive, would be $6,000 annually.
TOPS Performance students, who must have at least a 3.25 GPA and a 23 ACT score, would receive $6,500. TOPS Honors students, with at least a 3.5 GPA and a 27 ACT score, would receive $9,000. The bill's proposed TOPS Excellence award, the new highest amount, would be $11,300 per qualifying student, who must earn at least a 31 on the ACT and a 3.5 GPA.
LSU and LSU Health New Orleans students would receive an additional $700 per year on top of whatever award level they earn.
That would mean baseline TOPS students would pay out of pocket approximately $5,770 to attend LSU and $4,755 to attend Louisiana Tech.
For some schools with lower tuition and fees, the new award amounts would provide some students with an excess. Under present law, that money has to be applied to students' room and board expenses, which typically are paid out of pocket. But under a law the legislature approved last year, schools have complete autonomy to raise their fees, meaning they could increase the cost of attendance to meet the new award amount — and add to their revenues.
Increasing the out-of-pocket costs for LSU students came as a bit of a surprise after the House Education Committee held a series of hearings over the past year in which they repeatedly questioned university administrators about why so many Louisiana students were leaving the state — and why LSU was admitting so many out-of-state students.
Lawmakers have raised this concern so frequently over the past year that LSU launched new software, LSU Insight, designed to answer questions lawmakers frequently put to the university about where LSU students live and work. They unveiled the new program at a Senate budget hearing earlier this month and with an email to each lawmaker.
Legislators frequently raised the issue that students in their community were being offered more money to attend Alabama or Ole Miss. They then asked why LSU couldn't offer more to keep them home — and why LSU offered thousands of dollars in tuition assistance to out of state students at the same time.
LSU President William Tate said the university profits only about $500 over four years from an in-state student. But even with a generous financial aid package, the margin for each out-of-state student is so high that it subsidizes the tuition assistants for two Louisiana enrollees.
Increasing out-of-pocket costs for Louisianians at LSU could lead more students to accept generous financial aid packages at its competitors, or to go to schools like Louisiana Tech or the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Any loss of in-state students would ultimately lead LSU to seek more out of state students, compounding the problem lawmakers have raised to them for months.
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