BATON ROUGE - A proposed bill requiring students to pay back their TOPS scholarship if they lose eligibility for the program with poor grades or by leaving school failed in the state House.

House Bill 385, authored by Rep. Dennis Bamburg, would've only applied to students who qualify for the bottom two levels of the TOPS program, the TOPS Opportunity Award and the TOPS Performance Award. 

Students who qualify for higher-level awards such as TOPS Honors and TOPS Excellence would not have been required to pay back their awards.

The bill failed with a 38-62 vote.