New Jersey students to lose out on state scholarship to attend community college

Sunday, March 21, 2010
By BILL WICHERT
The Express-Times

Phillipsburg resident Amanda Renkel spoke to a group of high school students a few weeks ago about a New Jersey scholarship program that covered her and her older sister's educations at Warren County Community College.

Now that program has fallen prey to New Jersey's proposed budget cuts. Renkel said taking away scholarship dollars for those students is completely unfair.

"I feel terrible for them," said Renkel, 19, a WCCC freshman. "It doesn't make any sense."

No incoming freshmen are to be accepted into the New Jersey Student Tuition Assistance Reward Scholarship I Program for fall 2010 under the budget proposal unveiled last week by Gov. Chris Christie. The NJ STARS I program assists students who graduate in the top 15 percent of their high school class and meet other requirements.

College and high school officials said the move represents poor timing for students finalizing their higher education plans.

"It's a shame," Phillipsburg Superintendent Mark B. Miller said. "It's taking away an extremely successful program."

The NJ STARS I program covers all tuition and approved fees for up to five semesters at county colleges. Under NJ STARS II, students can receive up to $3,500 per semester to complete their bachelor's degree at a four-year public college or university. NJ STARS II is unaffected by budget cuts.

Current recipients to see no change in scholarships

The roughly 5,700 college students with existing scholarships through the NJ STARS I and II programs will see no change under the governor's proposal, according to AnnMarie Bouse, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority.

By suspending NJ STARS I for incoming students, the state anticipates saving nearly $1.7 million, Bouse wrote in an e-mail.

"The state has a budget deficit in excess of $10.7 billion," Bouse wrote. "As the governor stated in his budget address, very difficult decisions had to be made."

Jacob Farbman, spokesman for the New Jersey Council of County Colleges, said the group hopes to work with state officials to come up with an alternative plan and maintain the NJ STARS I program. Economic conditions and the potential to later earn a NJ STARS II scholarship are driving students to take advantage of the program, he said.

"We do hope to work with state leaders to find a way to sustain the program in the long term," Farbman said. "Hopefully, we can find a way."

Warren County Community College has 29 NJ STARS I students in their freshman year and 40 students in their sophomore year, college President Will Austin said. Sixteen eligible high school seniors have expressed interest in attending WCCC in the fall through the NJ STARS I program, Austin said.

Program aimed to keep top students in N.J.

The NJ STARS program was designed to stop talented students from leaving the state, he said. NJ STARS students set higher expectations in the classroom and make other students perform better, Austin said.

"Its purpose is to keep the best and the brightest in the state."

Among upcoming high school graduates across Warren County, 60 Phillipsburg students are eligible for the NJ STARS I program, and about 32 students at Hackettstown High School could have received scholarships, school officials said.

"It helps to save a lot of money," said Bob Pierfy, student assistance coordinator for the Phillipsburg School District and interim director of guidance at the high school. "It's very inviting."

Some high school students, however, might say that if they had known they would have to pay to attend WCCC, they might have gone to a four-year school, said Guy Jorstad, supervisor of pupil personnel services at Hackettstown High School.

Now, sending out college applications in mid-March is "really lousy timing," Jorstad said.

"The competition for the remaining seats really increases," he said.