<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Where does the money come from that state senators and representatives use to sponsor students to attend Tulane University for free?</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">With TOPS on the chopping block, it is only fair to look at the money that is being spent to allow senators and representatives to sponsor full tuition for students to attend Tulane University.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The scholarships are funded by Tulane, which under a 132-year-old deal with the Legislature waives the tuition of some students in exchange for tax breaks from the state.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Under the agreement, each legislator — 105 in the House, 39 in the Senate — may name a student to receive a one-year full scholarship to Tulane. The value of the 2015-2016 Legislative Scholarship was $45,758, according to the university.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The law that initiated the agreement in 1884 says the school would provide “free tuition to one student from each Senatorial and from each Representative district or parish, to be nominated by its member in the General Assembly from among the bona fide citizens and residents of his district or parish. … The free tuition herein provided for shall continue until each student has graduated from the academic department.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The agreement has since evolved to limit the scholarships to one year — though lawmakers may name the same student from one year to the next — and to allow legislators to name students from outside their districts.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Tulane’s list of recipients, for example, shows that Sen. Greg Tarver, D-Shreveport, nominated a Lake Charles student for a scholarship for the current school year and that Rep. A.B. Franklin, D-Lake Charles, nominated a Baton Rouge student.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Additionally, a lawmaker can forgo making a nomination and allow Tulane to pick an eligible student, who may or may not live within that legislator’s district.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">To qualify for the scholarship, students must be permanent residents of the state; must be graduates of a Louisiana high school; and must be admitted as a full-time undergraduate — which entails meeting test score and class ranking requirements — or have a 2.30 cumulative Tulane grade-point average.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The scholarship program, subject to abuse in the past and seen by some as a way for politicians to award allies and donors, has come under repeated attack in recent years. But all attempts to repeal or modify the program have failed.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The latest effort, House Bill 103, was referred to the Committee on House and Governmental Affairs, where it was rejected. The measure, by Jerome “Dee” Richard, I-Thibodaux, would have ended the scholarship program.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">https://tulane.edu; www.legis.la.gov.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">The I</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nform</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">er answers questions from rea</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ders each Sunday, Monday a</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nd Wednesday. It is re</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">searched and written by</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Andrew Perzo</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">, an</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">American Press</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">staff wri</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ter. To ask a question, call</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">494-409</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">8 and leave voice mail, or ema</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">il informer@americanpress.com.</span>