Governor Bobby Jindal
Governor Jindal is an anti-education Governor. In his tenure as Governor, he has slashed 41.7% of state appropriations for higher education, cutting a grand total of $615,291,007 from our colleges and universities.
Governor Jindal values tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations over the education of Louisiana students. Our public institutions of higher education have been forced to raise $408,319,297 to cover what the Governor has cut.
This represents a indefensible tax on our students and their families. Our students should not be paying for Governor Jindal’s pathetic fiscal policy. Tuition and fees are up, professors fired, and courses, departments, and schools are being demolished. We must not charge students more for less education.
The Louisiana Democratic Party opposes the Governor’s thoughtless education policy. All day today, we will #tweetthecuts to spread awareness of the cuts and help students hold Governor Jindal accountable. We will remind every college and university what the Governor has done to their funding and how much more their students must pay.
Follow @lademos or the #tweetthecuts hashtag on twitter and retweet!
We have included a spreadsheet with all the cuts. The Governor’s office will likely dispute the 41.7% figure claiming that LOFSA appropriation is state support for higher education. The primary expense of LOFSA is the TOPS appropriation. The way this program works is that the state pays the TOPS student’s tuition instead of them or their parents paying it. As such, these funds do not constitute additional state support for higher education because were it not for TOPS these campuses would be collecting these funds as tuition payments from students or their parents.
It’s also important to note even if we used the Governor’s funny math, the cuts are still absolutely indefensible.