Published: April 22, 2022
By: Piper Hutchinson, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE — The Senate Committee on Education unanimously advanced a bill Thursday that would stop the reporting of household income for TOPS recipients.
Senate Bill 81, sponsored by Sen. Bodi White, a Central Republican, would eliminate the requirement for TOPS recipients to report their family’s income.
Students who benefit from the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, a merit-based scholarship that covers tuition costs for in-state students, are required to provide significant demographic information.
White’s original bill also would have nixed the requirement for reporting on race and gender. But it was amended to only do away with income reporting.
About 58,000 students took advantage of the scholarship in the 2020-2021 academic year. Of the 15,000 high school graduates who were awarded tops at the end of the 2020 school year, about 40% of them came from households with annual incomes of at least $100,000.
The median household income in Louisiana is $49,000.
Read more at Shreveport Times
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 