Originally Posted by
Tracker123
Our new governor laid it all on the line yesterday due to the extreme loss of oil revenue in the state. The current price of oil. The TOPS scholarship program has now been suspended for the current college kids. 4,700 roughly in the university here in Lafayette. The parents polled for those scholarship programs roughly 90 % stated that without TOPS the kids will not be able to attend. My kids had the TOPS program due to extremely good grades in high school - now college educated.
He also has proposed the largest tax increase in history for the state of Louisiana. Has also threatened shutting down LSU athletic programs, etc. I understand how this all works, the loss has to be made up somewhere. It's simple economics.
What I don't understand is those folks rejoicing over the price of gasoline at the pumps when they haven't a clue of the big picture. Maybe it's ignorance, or selfishness, or both.
The shutting down of athletic programs is mostly a scare tactic, so that everyone will be more open to the tax hikes. The only way LSU athletics, especially football, is going to shutdown would be because of a lack of academic funding. At that point, we have way bigger issues than football; smaller universities would have shutdown. The football program is self-sustained and is always giving money to the academic fund.
Things have really stacked up against Louisiana. We were in quite a financial mess, even when the oilfield was booming. Add lack of oil revenue and lack of money going into the local economy and we have disaster. The majority of people only see today, they don't see that their job relies on money that the state no longer has. Our state is a poor performer educationally and I fear that this is only going to worsen as funds go away.
It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings.
–Ann Landers
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Randy Andres
