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Regents staff outline 2025 higher-education bills, caution on timing and constitutional amendments
Summary
Board staff told the Legislative Committee they are tracking numerous 2025 bills that affect higher education, including TOPS-related physician-recruitment language, financial-aid alignment, deferred-maintenance funding tools and proposals tied to Board of Regents responsibilities.
Board of Regents staff briefed the Legislative Committee on a broad legislative package that the board is tracking for the 2025 session, including bills and resolutions that affect higher education funding, student aid and campus operations.
Staff described a slate of priorities and bills being followed: a resolution to improve student advising and work-based learning; a bill (reported favorably in House Education) tied to physician recruitment that would allow out-of-state students who paused TOPS eligibility to restart TOPS at the graduate (medical/dental) level in exchange for a three-year return-to-state service commitment; a proposal to align financial-aid programs serving career-technical students under the workforce commission; GoTeach scholarship packaging changes to increase scholarship take-up; TOPStech eligibility changes to include dual-enrollment coursework; a retirement-related package following the regents’ retirement task force; and job-order contracting legislation intended to speed deferred-maintenance work by prequalifying contractors and using a pricing book approach.
Staff also noted bills specifically tied to Board of Regents authority or operations, including proposed membership on a constitutional convention; a Louisiana Transparency Act to audit foreign gifts; a proposed NIL (name, image, likeness) task force staffed by the Board of Regents; and bills to move the University of New Orleans between systems. Several legislators were repackaging components of a previously introduced constitutional amendment (the funding/support-fund amendment) into separate bills; staff warned there are competing proposals about when a successful constitutional amendment would appear on the ballot (special election in December versus an April special election). Staff said the timing of any ballot measure remains uncertain and depends on which bill clears last.
On funding, staff highlighted Representative Turner’s proposal to deposit $100 million into a deferred maintenance fund (following last year’s $75 million appropriation) and reminded members of the scale of facility needs—staff cited an estimated $2 billion backlog. Staff advised the committee that some bills had not yet been heard and that the board’s government-relations staff and senior leadership were actively engaged in committee hearings.
Committee members asked process questions about the constitutional amendment repackaging and about which proposals would require a ballot referendum. Staff reiterated that some proposals would be constitutional amendments and would therefore require a public vote; others are stand-alone statutory measures. The committee received the update for information; no formal board-level vote on specific legislation was taken during the briefing.
