








Tony Amato, superintendent in Orleans, and Diane Rousseau, Jefferson superintendent, have difficult jobs. The school systems they manage are large, poor, neglected and under appreciated. Their students are too often also poor, neglected and under appreciated. The Jefferson Parish figures include $4.2 million in Tuition Opportunity Program for Students or TOPS awards. The TOPS program is a state-funded tuition abatement program that has been praised and copied by several states and, as you can see, it accounts for about one-third of the scholarships earned by local students. The Jefferson Public Schools should delight in telling us all about the $6.1 million earned in academic scholarships, $1.4 million for athletics, $520,000 in military and $296,000 in ROTC. I'm sure Jefferson students wind up in prestigious schools all across the nation, too.
