Butch Gautreaux, Louisiana Senator (D) from Morgan City, is proposing a new drug testing legislation for the Tuition Opportunity Program for Students scholarships program. TOPS already requires a mandated grade-point average requirement and other stipulations to obtain the award, and Gautreaux is looking to require a drug screening to accompany the existing requirements.
The new requirement would effect high school seniors, starting with the class of 2004. Not only would the incoming freshmen be required to pass the screening to obtain TOPS, but random drug screenings would be performed to TOPS recipients while in college to maintain the award as well. Along with the actual drug screening, students would be required to sign a written form agreeing to be drug free and giving permission to be voluntarily subject to drug testings.
“It’s not unreasonable to ask that the TOPS recipient be in compliance of the laws of Louisiana,” Gautreaux said.
Gautreaux has not asked for co-authors for the bill from fellow senators as of yet, but he is still considering doing so. According to Gus Wales, TOPS representative and Public Information and Communications Director, the Louisiana Student Financial Assistance Commission voted on March 25 to take no position on Senator Gautreaux’s bill.
Gautreaux’s reasoning for proposing the legislation comes after researching the needs of industries in south Louisiana and discovering that many potential employees were being disqualified from jobs for the inability to pass a drug screening.
“I feel that if the taxpayers are paying for a student’s education, we have the right to require that students do all that he or she can to be ready to go to work upon completion of that education,” Gautreaux said.
As far as costs for the screenings, according to the proposed bill, students would be required to absorb the cost of the initial test and further random screenings would be paid for from the State General Funds. According to Gautreaux, because of the cost, approximately no more than five percent of the recipients will be tested annually for random screenings.
The proposed legislation has been brought up for consideration and will be presented in the general legislative session that began March 31. According to Wales, the bill will first be heard by the Senate Education Committee. If it passes out of the committee, it would go to either the Appropriations Committee or directly to the Louisiana House Floor. If passed on the House Floor, it would then go back to the Senate Education Committee for further consideration. Once it is out of the Education Committee, it would be carried over to the Senate Floor. The bill, however, could be amended at any stage. If it does eventually pass both the House and the Senate floors, it would be sent to the Governor to be either signed into law or vetoed.