The governor’s proposed budget calls for an 80 percent cut in state funding for TOPS, because of a one-billion dollar reduction in state revenues. President of the University of Louisiana System Dr. Jim Henderson says a cut like that would cost students and their families thousands of dollars a year.
Along with a massive cut to TOPS, the budget included an additional 26-million dollar cut to higher education. Higher ed dodged budget cuts last year, and Henderson says it had a big impact on the UL system.
According to UL analysis, Louisiana universities currently operate at the lowest per student funding in the country. Henderson says cutting TOPS would be a betrayal of hard working students.
Henderson says he doesn’t believe the “Doomsday Budget” will be adopted, but he is concerned that continued uncertainty involving TOPS could drive Louisiana’s best and brightest out of state.