BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The state's higher education leaders
outlined their worst-case scenario for budget cuts - only to be
told that might not be the worst case.
College officials have been asked to draw up plans for what the
loss of nearly $300 million in federal stimulus money in about 14
months would look like for the individual schools.
They described cut scenarios Tuesday to the Senate Finance
Committee.
If doled out evenly to all four-year schools, a $300 million cut
could force more than 1,700 layoffs and slash one-third of state
funding to each campus. If the eight smallest four-year schools
were shut down, that still wouldn't rescue other campuses from
cuts.
University chiefs stressed they weren't proposing these ideas -
just offering the information requested by lawmakers.
The committee chairman, Sen. Mike Michot, warned the cuts might
even be deeper.

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