Sooooooo LSU may not have a football team next year.....

[gostangs]

But seriously, if they ceased all academic activity at LSU, would anyone even notice?

[ebrooks11]

The only answer is to "feel the Bern"

How does the "free college" plan of his work with regards to the cost given the various prices of universities?

I have no clue. I'm voting for him because I like the slogan.

[03Mustang]

Scare tactic so that the democrat can get some tax hikes approved.

You should look at the NOLA.com story that breaks down what Jindal's admin did to cause the crisis by spending and refusing to find recurring revenue sources.

[ebrooks11]

I think the government should make the rich schools give money to the poor schools.

[mathman]

I think the government should make the rich schools give money to the poor schools.

I am filing suit to take guardianship of my granddaughters. They do not need to be around this type of influence

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[PoconoPony]

But seriously, if they ceased all academic activity at LSU, would anyone even notice?

Please define what threshold might be considered as academic activity at LSU.

[peruna81]

So Les Miles job is saved last year so he take a break from coaching this year....only in Louisiana.

[RebStang]

Hurry!!! Hurry!!! The corndogs are burning!!! Save them!!!

In all seriousness, though, I think a lot of the problem is that so many Louisiana kids are going to school for free or close to it under the TOPS program. The standards to qualify for TOPS are quite low and it's not that hard to keep once a kid is enrolled so a large number of students at the colleges and universities in Louisiana are paying almost nothing to go to college. To compound that, LSU doesn't draw a lot of students from out of state - their out of state enrollment is only about 20%.

It's kind of hard to break even or generate a budget surplus when only 20% of your "customers" pay "full price" (ie, full tuition with the out of state tuition added) and a fairly large percentage of the rest pay almost nothing. It's probably even worse at the other schools in Louisiana that are likely over 90% in-state students.

[ponyte]

But seriously, if they ceased all academic activity at LSU, would anyone even notice?

Yes. My wife has two LSU degrees. I have one LSU degree. I have one daughter with a LSU degree and another that is a Freshman at LSU.

[ponyte]

Hurry!!! Hurry!!! The corndogs are burning!!! Save them!!!

In all seriousness, though, I think a lot of the problem is that so many Louisiana kids are going to school for free or close to it under the TOPS program. The standards to qualify for TOPS are quite low and it's not that hard to keep once a kid is enrolled so a large number of students at the colleges and universities in Louisiana are paying almost nothing to go to college. To compound that, LSU doesn't draw a lot of students from out of state - their out of state enrollment is only about 20%.

It's kind of hard to break even or generate a budget surplus when only 20% of your "customers" pay "full price" (ie, full tuition with the out of state tuition added) and a fairly large percentage of the rest pay almost nothing. It's probably even worse at the other schools in Louisiana that are likely over 90% in-state students.

Texas students get in state tuition. My Daughter is a straight A freshman at LSU, on the Dean's list and didn't qualify for TOPS. Not as easy as one might think to get that cash.

And before we get too hot and bother about the budget crisis being the work of the Governor alone, in June 2014 the price of a barrel of oil was about $115. This is slightly higher than the state estimate for the price of oil for 2014. The price of oil was estimated to be $97+ for FY 2015 when the 2015 budget was set. The actual price was just North of $50 a barrel by Jan 2015 and down to about $30 a barrel by August. The budget was set before the price cratered.

The first real budget to deal with the crushing decrease in oil prices will be set this year via special session called by the governor for the budget (only issue).

The State made generous estimates of oil tax receipts based on a very long history of $100+ per barrel price of oil. Based on legislative schedules and the timing of the oil decrease, a perfect storm for a budget crisis was created. The easy and convenient thing is to blame one person for a very complex process that relied on estimates that changed over night in budgetary terms.

The governor is a Democrat and the House and Senate are Republican controlled. This is standard scare tactics. It happens a fair amount in LA. LA has a strong governor model but the governor isn't an absolute dictator and has to have the legislature to pass the budget. Expect hear more scare tactics.

[peruna81]

ponyte, thanks for that info, and yet another reason for you to head down south from your prior stomping grounds. It is a sad reality of economics and politics meshing at the worst place. Makes me wonder if this is the difference between being governed and being ruled...being a citizen or a subject.

[ponyte]

We have a lot of issues to be sure. The current govener, who by the way voted to pass the last LA budget so can't claim he didn't know about it, also has increased Medicaid eligibility (and the state is broke) and is wanting to increase state eligibility for a considerable number of social safety net programs. So the governor needs to set some bargaining points to get increase benefits for those that don't work. Thus, the threat to LSU (and all higher education). I admit, usual LA politicians are much more sophisticated in their threats so this is a bit bare knuckled and unusual.

[orguy]

But seriously, if they ceased all academic activity at LSU, would anyone even notice?

Certainly have known some sharp LSU grads in Engineering/Sciences and am a bit baffled by comments that LSU is not a solid school.

[smupony94]

Has more to do with their tshirt fans rather than their actual graduates

[RebStang]

Hurry!!! Hurry!!! The corndogs are burning!!! Save them!!!

In all seriousness, though, I think a lot of the problem is that so many Louisiana kids are going to school for free or close to it under the TOPS program. The standards to qualify for TOPS are quite low and it's not that hard to keep once a kid is enrolled so a large number of students at the colleges and universities in Louisiana are paying almost nothing to go to college. To compound that, LSU doesn't draw a lot of students from out of state - their out of state enrollment is only about 20%.

It's kind of hard to break even or generate a budget surplus when only 20% of your "customers" pay "full price" (ie, full tuition with the out of state tuition added) and a fairly large percentage of the rest pay almost nothing. It's probably even worse at the other schools in Louisiana that are likely over 90% in-state students.

Texas students get in state tuition. My Daughter is a straight A freshman at LSU, on the Dean's list and didn't qualify for TOPS. Not as easy as one might think to get that cash.

I've read the program's own published requirements and, outside of the core units requirement, it doesn't seem all that difficult to get full tuition covered. The minimum requirements for the "Opportunity Award" are a 20 on the ACT and a 2.5 high school GPA along with 19 core units.

LSU uses TOPS as a massive advantage for its baseball program. Louisiana produces a lot of baseball talent and LSU is consistently about to bring in local players without having to offer a baseball scholarship which frees up most of their scholarship money to go after top prospects nationally with offers of a full ride. Florida does this as well using its Bright Futures program. About the only schools that have bigger advantages in baseball recruiting are schools like Vanderbilt and Rice that put every baseball player on a 'merit based' scholarship that covers everything that the baseball scholarship doesn't.