I Said This (To Get Elected), But of Course; Am Doing This!

[Emperor]

My daughter left when she graduated from SLU in 1997, said she would never return to live in LA. She went on to grad school in Birmingham, AL, then Providence, RI, then took a job she really loves in Seattle, WA. She still says LA is the last state she would wish to live in.

It really does matter what you want to get out of living here. I love this stupid place, but it is a **** hole! I despise the littering here. This place is full of dirt bags in that regard. But there are a lot of reasons to stay too. If I just worked here (as in not a business owner), and didn't have family I would probably leave too. Or at the very least get as far away from other people here as possible. There are great folks I know, and then there are just plain garbage people too. Like gumbo!

 

[Saintsfan6]

And 1/3 don't maintain their GPA and lose it. I'm against the TOPS program. It would be easier to grin and bear it if I knew that TOPS aid only went to truly talented exceptional students that had a great things to offer. But it doesn't. and just like free cell phones and EBT cards I'm paying into it and get nothing in return.
This thread is like trying to have a non biased conversation about immigration with an illegal immigrant. Total waste of time.

Absolutely correct. I graduated high school in the TOPS era, and received the benefits of TOPS while attending school at UL. I had a much higher GPA and ACT score than required to qualify for TOPS, and I wasn't exactly a extremely dedicated student in high school. For Christ sake, anyone who gives half a sh!t could qualify for TOPS. Problem is the standards are so low that many get TOPS and are not prepared for college and end up dropping out completely after wasting their time and OUR money. I would be ok with TOPS if the standards were much higher, at least on the GPA side. It would require less funding because less would be spent on a one year party for college drop outs.

There are enough federal gov grant programs that would fund MORE THAN the tuition cost for underprivileged individuals. So if you are indeed underprivileged, you can get a free ride (and then some) through college if you go through the proper paperwork.

I am happy TOPS funded a large majority of my undergraduate education (who wouldn't be!?). It allowed me to pursue a graduate program without already being in debt. That said, I won't be sorry to see it go because I saw large flaws with TOPS while in high school and early undergraduate school.

I would like to see numbers on individuals that qualified for TOPS and started college vs those that finished college, that would give a good idea of what kind of money is wasted there. Also, the individual that puts themselves through college (either through work or student loans) has much more to lose financially than those on a free ride through TOPS or any grant program for that matter.

 

[Talon65]

F-ing hilarious that people loose their mind when he mentioned college football -- 1st of all it is a college extra-curricular activity. If it can self fund itself great, but in a budget crisis, this should be 1st to get hit. BTW- when is the last time you watched a college football game and they showed a player's major and GPA? Yeah, that's what I thought.

You do know that LSU is one of the schools that takes no taxpayer subsidy for its football program? In fact it actually profits the school by turning over almost 9 million a year in surplus so I guess that would make sense for the governor to "cancel Christmas" and shut down LSU football and put us further in the hole just to make some stupid political point so he can raise taxes. I get tired of uninformed voters taking this drivel hook line and sinker when just a bit of research into this guys claims can be disproven as just a bunch of fear mongering ********. Do we have a serious budget concern ... yes we do and I tend to side with Kennedy that we could do a hell of alot more cutting of things that are less essential than higher education.

 

[CatCam]

You do know that LSU is one of the schools that takes no taxpayer subsidy for its football program? In fact it actually profits the school by turning over almost 9 million a year in surplus so I guess that would make sense for the governor to "cancel Christmas" and shut down LSU football and put us further in the hole just to make some stupid political point so he can raise taxes. I get tired of uninformed voters taking this drivel hook line and sinker when just a bit of research into this guys claims can be disproven as just a bunch of fear mongering ********. Do we have a serious budget concern ... yes we do and I tend to side with Kennedy that we could do a hell of alot more cutting of things that are less essential than higher education.

IMHO college is now less about academics and more of how good is their sports program is, but I guess you gotta give the people what they want. I just love the interviews with these "Scholar-Athletes" after the big game. When is the last time you've seen one of these "scholar-athletes" become academically ineligible so they couldn't play? Yeah, that's what I thought.

 

[Emperor]

Be prepared for this prediction! The bug is getting the 1 cent sales tax, and will likely get the cigarette tax too (though I couldn't care less about cigarette smokers). In fact, whatever tax they settle on should have an additional 10 cents added on top of that to pay for cleaning up the butts that 90% of **** smokers toss out of their cars onto the street.

So, I predict over time, the oil prices will go up (does anyone really believe it won't?), and the taxes he gets now will NEVER be repealed (they never do), and this guy will crow how he, a democrat; was able to fix the budget crisis that a republican left. The result? A possible surplus (particularly when oil kicks back in). Remember, a very large portion of this state's budget is tied to oil revenues. When that comes back around, I fully expect the bug to start the process of rescinding the cuts by hiring more state workers back to say how he brought down unemployment, and reintroducing all of the wasteful contracts, but this time they will all be his cronies.

Now I realize this prediction will take at least two to three years to become proven, but I have time! Anyone want to bet I'm wrong?

 

[Harrisracing]

Don't forget that the hidden agenda of putting down a state-run free college program during the process would GREATLY help Bernie's campaign on a federal free college program!



Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[Talon65]

IMHO college is now less about academics and more of how good is their sports program is, but I guess you gotta give the people what they want. I just love the interviews with these "Scholar-Athletes" after the big game. When is the last time you've seen one of these "scholar-athletes" become academically ineligible so they couldn't play? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Les has actually booted a good number of highly touted scholarship athletes from the program from any number of infractions including being academically ineligible so I sense you have a bigger axe to grind here than just the money, as I said they actually provide a profit for the school to the tune of almost 9 million dollars a year and unless I missed something there are more kids going to school every year there that have nothing to do with athletics. I ve also heard many of those student athletes give pretty decent interviews and will concede that some need to work on their public speaking ... but isnt that part of what they are doing ie bettering themselves and preparing themselves for the adult market place by earning a degree. You will also find that the football team actually graduates at a higher percentage (81 to 67) rate than the rest of the student body. So again I think its just more of a personal axe of yours to **** all over something you obviously are biased about and know fairly little as far as the facts are concerned. The 80's and 90's when that might have been true in some part are over brah time to get over it and move on.

 

[sandman7925]

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foo...ll-budget-louisiana-governor-john-bel-edwards

Now it's national news. No more football!!!!!oh god!!!!!!

 

[MTregre]

IMHO college is now less about academics and more of how good is their sports program is, but I guess you gotta give the people what they want. I just love the interviews with these "Scholar-Athletes" after the big game. When is the last time you've seen one of these "scholar-athletes" become academically ineligible so they couldn't play? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Then what explains the success of Tulane...? LOL!! (shot at Tulane fans)
But really, Tulane, NSU has done well, Loyola, Xavier...

 

[Emperor]

This morning on WBRZ they reported that the House of Representatives was not taking action the cigarette tax because the Senate was balking at the spending cuts, saying they went too far. But in true moron news cast fashion that's all they said, almost verbatim. They didn't say what budget cuts they (Senate), were trying to protect.

However, instead of explaining which cuts they were talking about and other information germane to the story and useful to the viewers and taxpayers, they made sure to give Pat Shingleton a full 15 minutes of the 30 minute newscast to predict weather 7 days out with Tarot cards and tea leaves!

Dumbasses!

 

[reelkaos]

TV news isn't about the news, I have found.

 

[Emperor]

TV news isn't about the news, I have found.

Good point! They seem to all want to be like E Entertainment! When I see commercials for Good Morning America, it looks like they are promoting a carnival!?!