News

Ways to spend $40M college fund being considered

by Patrick Flanagan

Louisiana college, economic development and labor officials are digging into the details of how they'll spend a new $40 million higher education incentive fund created earlier this year.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana college, economic development and labor officials are digging into the details of how they'll spend a new $40 million higher education incentive fund created earlier this year.

Gov. Bobby Jindal and lawmakers set aside the money for college research and training programs that will fill high-demand jobs in the state. The money was put into the newly-created Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy Fund, or WISE Fund.

A council set up to make recommendations for spending the money is meeting Wednesday to discuss the data that will be used to divvy up the money in the fund and possible ways to distribute the cash.

The Board of Regents will have final say over which campuses get the remaining money, based on recommendations from the WISE Council.