2019 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 206
BY SENATOR MORRISH
A RESOLUTION
To urge and request the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, in
coordination with the Board of Regents and the Louisiana Office of Student
Financial Assistance, to continue a pilot program to provide public postsecondary
education scholarships to certain adult students and to submit written reports of its
findings regarding the development and implementation of the program, including
any recommendations for related legislation, to the Senate Committee on Education
not later than sixty days prior to the beginning of the 2020 Regular Session of the
Legislature and the 2021 Regular Session of the Legislature.
WHEREAS, current data and occupational forecasts indicate that a majority of high-
demand, high-paying occupations will require more than a high school education; and
WHEREAS, half of Louisiana's working-age adults have a high school diploma or
less and lack the skills and education needed to fully participate in the economy; and
WHEREAS, every effort must be made to provide greater access to postsecondary
education to those adults in order to move them from the rolls of the underemployed or
unemployed to the rolls of a skilled workforce and to ensure that they are prepared to meet
the current and future workforce needs of the state and are capable of self-sufficiency; and
WHEREAS, House Resolution No. 112 and Senate Resolution No. 113 of the 2018
Regular Session of the Legislature requested the Louisiana Community and Technical
College System to develop a pilot program to provide public postsecondary education
scholarships for use in programs aligned with high-demand, high-paying occupations by
Louisiana's working-age citizens who have earned an alternative high school diploma and
who have scored at least a seventeen on the ACT; and
WHEREAS, the scholarship program for adults did attract and engage more of the
working-age population in public postsecondary education; and
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WHEREAS, the adults participating in the scholarship program have demonstrated
success with higher average rates of persistence and grade point averages than students who
graduated from high school and have received a TOPS-Tech award; and
WHEREAS, further development of this pilot scholarship program is necessary to
aid in the development of a well-educated, highly skilled, and productive workforce, which
is of paramount importance to the economic growth of this state.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby urge and request the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, in
coordination with the Board of Regents and the Louisiana Office of Student Financial
Assistance, to further develop and expand the pilot program created in response to the
request of House Resolution No. 112 and Senate Resolution No. 113 of the 2018 Regular
Session of the Legislature to provide public postsecondary education scholarships for use
in programs aligned with high-demand, high-paying occupations by Louisiana's working-age
citizens who have earned an alternative high school diploma.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the scale of the expanded pilot scholarship
program administered by the Louisiana Community and Technical College System shall be
determined by the funds raised by the colleges or appropriated to them.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Louisiana Community and Technical
College System shall submit a written report of its findings regarding the development and
implementation of the pilot program, including any recommendations for related legislation,
to the Senate Committee on Education not later than sixty days prior to the beginning of the
2020 Regular Session of the Legislature and the 2021 Regular Session of the Legislature.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, the commissioner of
higher education, and the executive director of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial
Assistance.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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