BATON ROUGE, La. _ A new commission charged with finding ways to overhaul Louisiana's public college systems began its work Monday with recommendations from Gov. Bobby Jindal and a grim review of the state's budget woes.

Jindal told commission members they should seek ways to better align college training with Louisiana's job needs, supporting what each campus does best, cutting poor-performing programs and making LSU a nationally competitive flagship university.

Admission standards should be raised at four-year schools to encourage more enrollment at community college and technical school campuses, Jindal said. He suggested that would help reduce college dropout rates, keep students from amassing large student loan debt and direct students to training more in line with the jobs available in Louisiana.

The commission, called the Postsecondary Education Review Commission, is charged with finding efficiencies, suggesting cost-cutting moves and deciding how to restructure the four public college systems amid years of projected budget shortfalls and shrinking state funding for higher education.

The recommendations would have to be enacted by the Board of Regents, which oversees public colleges in Louisiana, and the state Legislature before they could take effect.

``We're not looking for just another report to sit on a shelf. We cannot afford to just continue the status quo,'' Jindal told the panel, nicknamed the ``Tucker Commission'' because it was created by the Legislature in a bill by House Speaker Jim Tucker.

Tucker said there's “widespread belief,” that the state's colleges operate inefficiently, that Louisiana has too many universities and too many college boards and the state has put too much emphasis on four-year colleges and not enough on the two-year schools. He urged panel members to be bold in their recommendations.

“We need you to tell us like it is ... We need you to take a two-by-four, if that's what is necessary, and smack us across the face,'' Tucker said.