[StBernard] Protecting TOPS

Westley Annis Westley at da-parish.com
Fri Jan 21 04:02:56 EST 2011


Dear Friends -

We met with the Board of Regents this week to ask them to study whether
students could be better served by merging the University of New Orleans
(UNO) and Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO), and also through better
collaboration with nearby Delgado Community College. The merger could make
sense because SUNO and UNO are in close proximity to each other, are
under-enrolled, and Delgado's enrollment is surging but they have limited
space.

SUNO's graduation rate of five percent is the lowest in our state and
something needs to be done to help our students. As the Lafayette Advertiser
<http://cl.publicaster.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c6443%7c9390&digest=SG
OQ5mRunmgWuQsbrrdgTg&sysid=1> reported, we said this study must be an
objective analysis driven by facts. We must do what's best for our students
and it cannot be driven by politics.

This week we also announced a new proposal to constitutionally protect more
money for the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) scholarship
program. Nearly 500,000 students have benefited from TOPS and those
recipients are graduating at a much higher rate than non-participants. As
the New Orleans Times-Picayune
<http://cl.publicaster.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c6444%7c9390&digest=07
OvTRbMPLCgIPWCNKX3jQ&sysid=1> reported, "$15 million a year in TOPS money
is protected" currently, but our proposal would increase that amount to $53
million per year immediately and much more than that in the future. This
amendment is critical to protecting the future of TOPS and helping us
continue to build a better Louisiana for our children.

Yesterday, we joined legislators and local officials in Shreveport to
announce legislation to invest $60 million to complete one of the final two
segments of I-49 North. This investment is an example of our continued
commitment to finishing I-49 North and it shows that are not waiting for the
federal government or others to complete the project. Even during these
tough budget times, we're being innovative to find sources of funding so we
can build our infrastructure. Indeed, the Shreveport Times
<http://cl.publicaster.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c7555%7c9390&digest=%2
bTsXs4WA77gr%2bmrcznkndw&sysid=1> wrote that "when one avenue doesn't work,
try a different path" and they recognized that our "seize the day" approach
to get this project done will encourage economic growth and investment and
help keep Louisiana moving forward.

Finally, today we announced that Louisiana was selected by The Pew Center on
the States to take part in its Public Safety Performance Project, which will
fund research on Louisiana's criminal justice system to develop a set of
common sense policies for reforming our corrections system. The study will
analyze Louisiana's criminal justice system's data, determining cost drivers
in the system and help develop a set of recommendations to improve public
safety. We've passed reforms that helped reduce the recidivism rate by 33
percent, but our work isn't done - and with this partnership we'll do an
even better job of decreasing recidivism in Louisiana and keeping our
communities safe.

Sincerely,

Governor Bobby Jindal





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