Students have options, the sick do not

The next time  your loved ones experience chest pains and have to travel twice as far to a hospital’s emergency room, can no longer receive proper care for their suffering from disabilities, or no longer receive hospice care, just take solace in the fact that all their suffering is worth it because TOPS is fully funded. 

Apparently, many of our legislators recently re-elected have decided it is paramount to fiscally protect TOPS, the largest middle class and upper income family entitlement program operating in this state.

Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, boldly admitted this fact last week when he stated, “TOPS is a priority for a majority of the (House) members.   We are allocating money across the state from all agencies and departments to make sure that TOPS is funded and other priorities are met.”  Since  health care services are not one of the ‘sacred cows’ protected by legislative mandate, and our legislators have vowed not to further cut education, it now remains the only option available to produce the required funds necessary to fulfill Henry’s proclamation.

In previous commentaries I have suggested that our decision-makers retrace the origins of TOPS.  It was never intended to be a free ride for average students.  It was designed to reward high achieving students with limited family resources.  It now fulfills neither of these original intents.  There are no longer family income caps, the present ACT score requirement for TOPS requires simply average test score performance, and since there are no standards equating GPAs across school districts or even from school to school, the required C plus 2.5 GPA is also suspect as a measure of elevated student performance.  Additionally, it was initially privately funded.

The discussion about whether TOPS should even exist as a tax-payer funded program is best saved for another day.  Yet one thing is clear regarding its funding.  If budget cuts are truly necessary, they need to be distributed equally across the board, and that includes TOPS. 

College bound students have the options of college-funded scholarships , work study programs, and low interest student loans to cover their college expenses; the physically and mentally ill have no such options.

Yet again, thanks to the poor fiscal management of this state by Jindal and most of the same legislators still working in Baton Rouge, we continue to see further polarization of our citizenry in fighting each other over fiscal funding for the services important to them.  The political gamesmanship continues to operate at our state capital and we are rapidly approaching the legislative gridlock that now plagues our federal government.