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Regular Session, 2012
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 134
BY REPRESENTATIVE BARROW
A RESOLUTION
To urge and request the Louisiana Student Financial Assistance Commission, in consultation
with the Board of Regents, to study the feasibility of requiring drug testing for
students to qualify for a Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) award and
to report its findings and recommendations to the House Committee on Education
prior to the convening of the 2013 Regular Session of the Legislature of Louisiana.
WHEREAS, TOPS is Louisiana's merit-based scholarship program that awards
qualifying students tuition payments for up to eight semesters at eligible Louisiana
postsecondary education institutions; and
WHEREAS, the projected number of TOPS recipients for Fiscal Year 2012-2013 is
close to forty-two thousand with a total funding of nearly one hundred seventy million
dollars; and
WHEREAS, drug testing is viewed by many as a means to prevent, deter, and detect
drug use among students; and
WHEREAS, TOPS awards are funded with taxpayer dollars, therefore it is only
fitting that a study be conducted to determine the feasibility of requiring drug testing for
students to qualify for TOPS in order to ensure that such taxpayer dollars are being used to
help students who have education as a priority and not students who are engaging in habits
or practices that could result in them quitting college and wasting their TOPS award.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby urge and request the Louisiana Student Financial
Assistance Commission, in consultation with the Board of Regents, to study the feasibility
of requiring drug testing for students to qualify for a Taylor Opportunity Program for
Students award and to submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the ENROLLEDHR NO. 134
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House Committee on Education prior to the convening of the 2013 Regular Session of the
Legislature of Louisiana.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
chairman of the Louisiana Student Financial Assistance Commission, the executive director
of the office of student financial assistance, the chairman of the Board of Regents, and the
commissioner of higher education.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATI VES