Louisiana bill requires college students to pay their way TOPS (Taylor Opportunities Program for Students) Scholarship amount if they drop out or lose eligibility. house bill 385 (PDF file), will apply to students graduating high school during or after the 2025-2026 school year.
Students may lose scholarship eligibility for several reasons, including failure to maintain a cumulative 2.3-2.5 GPA for TOPS opportunity and 3.0 GPA for TOPS performance. Students will also be ineligible if their GPA drops below 2.0 in any semester.
This means, even if you want to improve courses after a bad semester, you will still be able to repay the scholarship. The bill has been approved by the House committee and will now be sent to the full House for debate.
why it matters: TOPS is one of the largest state-funded merit scholarship programs in the country. If this bill becomes law, Louisiana would be the only state to require students to repay merit scholarship funds they earn in high school. This change could discourage students from enrolling in college altogether, or trap struggling students into programs they want to leave for fear of taking on unexpected debt.
by numbers
- $320 million+: Annual taxpayer investment in the TOPS program.
- 13%: The share of TOPS recipients who lose their scholarships each year.
- ~$50 million: The estimated annual cost of scholarships awarded to students who do not complete their degrees, according to Representative Bamberg.
- 0: The number of other states that require repayment of merit scholarship funds is up, according to the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation, which works with 22 states on similar programs.
the fine print: HB 385 contains exceptions. The Louisiana Board of Regents will define the rules for circumstances where repayment will be waived, including parental leave, disability, military service, substance abuse rehabilitation, death of an immediate family member, natural disasters and “extraordinary circumstances.” The Bill also empowers the state to charge interest on unpaid amounts and use all available collection methods. This is exactly the same way federal tuition grants can turn into loans.
It still needs full House approval and a Senate vote before reaching the governor’s desk.
How it connects: Nearly one-third of college students drop out without earning a degree, and 41% of dropouts cite money problems as the reason.
For students who leave, the financial consequence is already significant: Title IV aid rules may require federal return of aid rules to return a portion of the federal Pell Grant, and student loan payments begin six months after withdrawal. Adding the provision of state scholarships on top of the existing penalty would make the cost of dropping out of college even higher.
To learn more about what happens when students leave, check out The College Investor’s coverage of the financial impact of dropping out and what happens to financial aid if you drop out.
what happens next: The bill is to be voted on in the full House. If it passes, it will go to the Louisiana Senate. Lawmakers on the committee were already divided, and the reaction has been mixed, suggesting a contentious floor debate. If signed into law, repayment would be required beginning with the high school class of 2026.
Don’t miss these other stories:
