BATON ROUGE - Governor John Bel Edwards vowed not to cut additional funding from the TOPS program Tuesday.

Recently, students and parents were reminded that the scholarship program will fund a little less than 42% of second semester tuition. Lawmakers significantly reduced the amount of money for the program to deal with previous state budget issues. In a statement, Edwards said the reduction in funding for TOPS puts students at risk of dropping out of school.

"Going forward, it is my hope that we can restore funding to TOPS because too many students across the state are dependent upon the assistance it offers. In fact, despite the budget shortfalls we're currently facing, we will not be making further cuts to this program," Edwards said. He continued, "The upcoming regular session in 2017 will give us another opportunity to stabilize Louisiana's budget and invest in our children's futures, and I'm asking the legislature to work with me, so that Louisiana's students are not left to shoulder the burden of our state's financial problems."

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