Dive Brief:

• Louisiana’s Taylor Opportunity Program for Students still owes colleges a portion of scholarship awards for this semester but a historic budget shortfall means those funds don’t exist, requiring mid-year cuts across the state.
• The Advocate reports Louisiana State University will lose $10 million and the University of Louisiana Lafayette will lose $3.5 million, but for-profit colleges will get 100% of their reimbursements, which statewide is less than $40,000, prompting the state financial aid office to absorb their share.
• The TOPS cuts are expected to be paired with $70 million to $200 million in cuts to public colleges and universities before the end of June as the legislature works to close a $900 million budget shortfall for this fiscal year.

Dive Insight:

The special treatment for for-profit schools, though relatively inexpensive, is putting salt in the wounds of cash-strapped public schools in Louisiana. Private nonprofit schools also are owed the final 20% of TOPS funding and they won’t get their checks either.

Illinois’ public colleges are still battling through a nightmare budget year in which the state legislature and governor have refused to compromise on a deal. The state Senate approved interim funding for low-income student grants and then overrode the governor’s veto of the bill but they were not joined by the state House. Meanwhile, several colleges have sent out layoff notices to faculty and staff and had their credit ratings lowered because of the standoff.