Welcome TOPS Grads!

At the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation, we celebrate the promise of America, a nation still rich in courage, valor and grit. We are a land of dreamers, whose vision of the future is ripe with opportunity. And as always, in the dreams of our children, we find the most beauty.

Patrick F. Taylor, an oilman who once had dreams of his own, believed in America’s youth. He understood that bright futures stand on the sturdy legs of education. And so, he worked to guarantee that the opportunity to go to college be based on a child’s ability to learn, not the ability to pay. His vision, known as the Taylor Plan, became law in Louisiana in 1989. By the time of his death in 2004, twenty additional states had adopted merit-based college tuition plans. We at the Foundation are proud of my late husband’s legacy, but we recognize that his work is far from finished.