SU Lab school tuition to increase

 
An increase in tuition could take place at Southern University Laboratory School to help with the support that the university is providing.
However it has yet to be approved by the legislature. According to Southern Lab principal Ronnie Harrison, the school is currently working with the university and other business leaders in the community to create other possibilities to raise funds for the school.
Ronnie Harrison said that one of the reasons that the lab school is looking to increase tuition has to do with the subsidies that Southern University is currently providing.
“Over the past year the university has been subsidizing $800,000 per year,” said Harrison. ”In the current financial situation that the university is in, they are no longer to assist in that manner.”
Harrison indicated that they are a number of laboratory schools throughout Louisiana, but there are only two that the universities provide subsidies for, Southern Lab and Grambling State University Laboratory school.
“We are looking to move into the direction of other laboratory schools such as Southeastern Lab and LSU Lab in which are all self-supporting, so that the university would not have to provide such a high subsidy in order for the lab school to continue in existence,” Harrison said.
In addition to the possibility of raising tuition, Southern Lab is in the process of creating a 3- to 5-year strategic plan in which to increase enrollment at the school.
Harrison said increase in tuition will help the lab school.
“In the current situation of the university, any type of funding we can find will definitely help in moving the lab school in a more self-supporting role,” he said.
Southern Lab is looking at legislature approval in the possibility of raising tuition in the spring session of this year.
Harrison also indicates that there is a push to renovate Southern Lab as a result of the possible raise in tuition.
“We are in the process of revitalizing our foundation at the lab school in hopes to generate more funds to assist our academic program and get needed material and supplies for our teachers,” Harrison said. ​