There are several bills this legislative session that seek to make changes to the TOPS scholarship program. Some deal with relatively small adjustments to the underutilized TOPS Tech program. But a couple (HB 77 and HB 275) would make significant changes to the more popular TOPS Academic award that close to 15,000 new students access each year to help pay for expenses at a Louisiana college.
These bills have prompted more than the usual scrutiny of TOPS and turned up some interesting and little-known facts about the program. The Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance (LOFSA) keeps a detailed accounting of information on TOPS, and here are some findings pulled from their reports and our own analysis that some might find surprising.
- The percentage of students eligible for TOPS Academic awards is declining. It has dropped from an eligibility rate of 54.5% in 2014-15, to 46.4% in 2023-2024. This primarily seems to be because the statewide average ACT score, a key component in establishing TOPS eligibility, has been declining in recent years. It has fallen from an all-time high of 19.5 nine years ago, to 18.4 today. In terms of the ACT, that is a significant drop in performance. It should be noted that TOPS Tech requires a score of 17 on the ACT, while the base TOPS Opportunity award requires a 20.
- Conversely, the percentage of students eligible for the TOPS Tech award has been increasing. Over the last decade it has grown from 14.4% eligibility to 20.9%. That makes sense because as fewer students meet the standard for a TOPS Academic award, they drop into the next tier of eligibility for TOPS Tech. But as we shall see, that increase in eligibility hasn’t convinced more students to utilize it.
- The percentage of students who are eligible to receive a TOPS Academic award, but choosing not to accept it, is increasing. Over the last decade the acceptance rate has dropped from 89.4% to 81.1%. That is largely explained by another interesting fact.
- The percentage of TOPS-eligible students choosing to enroll in out-of-state schools is increasing. In 2014-15, just 5.4% of students declined TOPS to go to an out-of-state school. That percentage has more than doubled to 11.2% in 2022-2023. Where did they go? Primarily Mississippi, but also Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia. The top four schools they attend are the University of Southern Mississippi, the University of Alabama, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State University.
- Though the percentage of students eligible for TOPS Tech has grown significantly, the percentage of students who accept the award has declined. Over the last decade, the percentage of TOPS Tech-eligible students grew by more than 6 percentage points, but the acceptance rate actually went down by more than 3 percentage points.
So, what should one conclude from this data? Here are a few thoughts to consider:
- The statewide average ACT score has been declining over the last decade, which means that the percentage of students qualifying for a TOPS Academic award is shrinking, too.
- But as the percentage of students dropping below TOPS Academic eligibility adds to the pool of students eligible for TOPS Tech, that has not increased the percentage of students accepting a TOPS Tech award.
- One of the key reasons for this appears to be that the vast majority of these students who are eligible for TOPS Tech are not taking the career and technical courses the program was largely designed for. Instead, they are enrolled in the university diploma pathway. So rather than accept a TOPS Tech award and use it to attend a community college, many are going on to four-year institutions and leaving the award on the table.
- In this sense, it appears that TOPS Tech may not be sufficiently aligned to the education goals of most of the students who are eligible for it.
- When it comes to funding, the dollar amount of the TOPS award that goes to students has essentially been frozen for nearly a decade. During that same time the cost of higher education in Louisiana has grown steadily. That has significantly eroded the buying power of the TOPS Academic award, in particular.
- It has also likely contributed to the increase of TOPS-eligible students accepting scholarship offers from out-of-state schools where financial aid might be comparable or higher than that offered by TOPS.
- Still, more than 80% of students who are currently eligible for a TOPS Academic award accept it and enroll in a Louisiana college or university.
- The total amount spent on TOPS has been declining in the last few years, from a high of about $320 million in 2020-21 to about $272 million this year.
- With postsecondary education more expensive than it used to be and increasing numbers of TOPS-eligible students leaving the state, it might be time to consider revisiting the program’s relatively low eligibility standards and increasing the award amounts to retain more of the state’s high-performing students.
LOFSA has a wealth of information on the TOPS program on its website, including the recent TOPS Trends report and an informative TOPS Dashboard.