Task Force Seeks Ways to Assure NJ STARS Keep Shining

TRENTON — With the soaring cost of higher education, the state wants to ensure the security and growth of its popular scholarship program for star students.
With that aim, Gov. Jon S. Corzine announced July 15 the formation of a task force to examine the NJ STARS program.
The scholarship, available exclusively to state residents, provides high-achieving students (in the top 20 percent of their graduating high school class) with the cost of tuition and fees to one of the state’s 19 community colleges, including this area’s Atlantic Cape Community College (ACCC).
ACCC spokesperson Kathleen Corbalis said that as of January this year there were 262 STARS scholars in the college, or 8 percent of the 3,404-student population. According to ACCC’s Web site, almost 900 high school seniors in Atlantic and Cape May counties are eligible for the NJ STARS program each year.
The STARS II program also provides support to these students as they continue from community colleges into senior public colleges and universities.
Corbalis told the Herald the STARS program has become even more popular since the recent inception of the STARS II program. In the 2004-05 school year there were 54 STARS students at ACCC, then 114 students in 2005-06 and 137 students in 2006-07.
Although ACCC doesn’t keep track of its graduating students, Corbalis said nearly 50 percent of the 114 STARS students from the 2005-06 class have graduated from the college and more than half of those said they were transferring to state colleges or universities where the STARS II program was accepted.
“Providing our students with greater opportunities to pursue their higher education remains a top priority of this administration,” said Corzine.
“Working collaboratively with policy and legislative leaders, we will now focus our attention on NJ STARS to map a strategy that considers how the program will be continued and sustained for the future.”
The 12-member task force is made up of administration officials, legislators and representatives from different higher education institutions.
According to a press release from the Governor’s Office, the three main tasks of the panel will be to ensure the college-readiness of prospective STARS students, manage the growth of the program in the already burdened state budget, and controlling the cost to the four-year institutions as scholars move from STARS I to STARS II.
“The Task Force will provide the Governor and the Legislature with recommendations on improvements to the NJ Stars program that ensure the quality and sustainability of the program,” Jane Oates said in the press release. Oates is the Executive Director of the state Commission on Higher Education and a member of the task force.
ACCC President Dr. Peter Mora, who said he is familiar with the program’s issues from meetings of the New Jersey Council of Community Colleges, told the Herald some of his views on possible ways to make the STARS even better.
He said the program was instituted to try to keep more high-achieving students in New Jersey after they graduated from high school. Historically, the state had a high percentage of students leave to pursue higher education elsewhere, he said.
The first goal of the task force, dealing with the college-readiness of its students, might be addressed by having additional criteria considered (placement tests for instance) for acceptance into the program, Mora said.
Some students may have qualified with a high ranking, he said, but they may not have taken college prep courses and are therefore not ready to begin college.
The state fiscal issue, Mora said, could be addressed by reducing the percentage of qualifying students from the top 20 percent to the top 15 or 10 percent.
By accepting fewer students, the state would save some money.
Finally, Mora said that STARS students that transfer into four-year colleges are not required to pay any part of their tuition not covered by the approximately $2,000 STARS II scholarship award. The institution is mandated to take the student without additional funding from the state.
According to Mora, the burden on the four-year institutions would be lightened if students were responsible for the difference not covered by the STARS II scholarship.
“NJ STARS is a great program that fills an important need,” Mora said. “But it needs to be improved.”
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com