By Matt Houston
Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE – Sen. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, voluntarily pulled his House Bill 171 from further consideration this session to work on the concept that would raise the minimum academic requirement for the TOPS Opportunity Award from a 2.5 to a 2.75 GPA for students graduating from high school in 2021.
The other categories the GPA requirement for award eligibility in 2021 for the TOPS-Tech Award is 2.5, the Performance Award would be 3.25 and the Honors Award requires a 3.5.Â
Foil told the Senate Committee on Education he would like to work on a TOPS task force in the future to find ways to improve the current system.
Committee chairman Sen. Dan Morrish, R-Jennings, authored Senate Concurrent Resolution 110 that would establish a task force. It is pending before the House.
A bill requires 53 votes to move from the House to the Senate. HB 171 barely made to the Senate with a 53-32. Because it was voluntarily deferred by the author, it could be brought before the committee again, but Foil indicated he did not plan to do so.
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