New Jersey's STAR scholars will continue to shine Corzine agrees to continue state-funded scholarships Saturday, June 21, 2008 • BY ANA M. ALAYA • Star-Ledger Staff Hundreds of high school graduates can breathe easier after Gov. Jon Corzine's decision not to scale back a state college scholarship program for the next academic year. After months of debate over the NJ STARS program, the governor and legislators have agreed to remove a proposed income cap for scholarship eligibility in the 2009 state budget, which they hope to finalize next week. Under Corzine's initial proposal, students graduating high school this month whose families earn $100,000 or more a year would be ineligible for the scholarship. Statewide, about 40 percent of the fall's eligible freshmen -- between 700 and 800 students -- would have been affected. "It was kind of scary and nerve- wracking for awhile," said one of those students, 17-year-old Lauren Russo of Freehold. She applied only to Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, planning to follow the footsteps of her older sister, Jennifer, who attends the school with a STARS scholarship. "This program has been the best thing that could have happened to my family," Jennifer Russo said. With the two sisters and their brother in college, and a younger brother in middle school, the financial savings to her parents -- her mom is teacher, her father works in a bank -- is a big help, she said. Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex), who chairs the Assembly's Higher Education Committee, said Corzine agreed with him and other legislative leaders at a recent meeting that it would be unfair to impose a cap this year. Diegnan said unused funding from this year's program will cover the increase for next year. The governor is appointing a special task force to examine the program, which is expected to start running a deficit by 2010. "I think all of us agreed that the program clearly is a home run when it comes to the students of the state of New Jersey, but there have been some unintended consequences," Diegnan said. Lawmakers and college leaders agreed at a recent legislative hear ing that there are some fundamental problems with the financing and academic eligibility requirements of STARS and STARS II. State officials say the program has become a victim of its own suc cess. Launched in 2004 to stanch the exodus of high school graduates from the state, the Student Tuition Assistance Reward Scholarship pays tuition and fees at community colleges for high school students who graduate in the top 20 percent of their class. STARS students who attend full time and maintain a 3.0 grade- point average are eligible to finish their college career for free at one of New Jersey's four-year colleges under the STARS II program. The scholarship program has nearly 5,000 recipients in county and four- year colleges. In addition to rising costs, lawmakers and higher education officials are concerned that too many scholarship recipients are academically under-prepared for college. About 30 percent of the students need remedial courses. Lawrence A. Nespoli, president of the New Jersey Council of County Colleges, the state association for its 19 community colleges, said he is grateful to the governor and lawmakers for the preservation of STARS. "Because of their support, thou sands of students throughout the state who worked hard to maintain their NJ STARS eligibility in high school will receive this merit- based reward," Nespoli said. A spokesman for Corzine, Sean Darcy, said protecting education programs is a top priority in the budget. "Governor Corzine recognizes the importance of keeping New Jersey students in-state for college," Darcy said. © 2008 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.