This week Gov. Bobby Jindal unveiled a number of proposals aimed at higher education reform.

Many of these reforms are an extension of the GRAD Act, passed by the Legislature last year. The proposals would give colleges and universities more autonomy but also hold them to higher standards of accountability.

One of the proposals updates the current expectations for credit hours taken by full-time students. Currently, the threshold stands at 12 credit hours per semester. This means while many students start the semester with about 18 credit hours, some drop down to 12 during the course of the semester. The practice puts a drain on a college’s resources because they have to pay for courses that might otherwise be cancelled because of lack of participation.

Passing such a proposal would create a winning situation for nearly all involved. Schools could lower operational costs and pass those savings onto the students in the form of lower tuition.

The only losers in the deal would be perennial college students who take six to seven years to graduate from what should be a four-year institution.

Much of the attention given to the state government’s dealings with higher education of late has been negative, and rightly so as most of the ideas coming out of Baton Rouge have focused on budget cuts. The powers that be need to spend more time concentrating on efforts such as these that will strengthen Louisiana’s higher education system while saving taxpayer dollars at the same time.