By PATRICIA ALEX and KAREN DeMASTERS
SPECIAL TO THE HERALD NEWS

Efforts are under way to save a popular state program that gives high school seniors who graduate in the top 20 percent of their classes a free ride to community college, then a four-year state school, regardless of income.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine has proposed limiting the NJ STARS program by cutting out students whose family incomes exceed $90,000. The Governor's Office, grappling with huge budget deficits, has estimated the change could save $2.5 million next year.

But advocates say income limits would dilute the merit scholarship program designed to stanch the "brain drain" of New Jersey's best students. They also argue that the cap ignores the fact that $90,000 is just middle-class in a high-cost state such as New Jersey, and that it would exclude 30 percent to 40 percent of those now eligible for STARS.

Currently, 4,126 STARS students are enrolled as freshmen or sophomores at community colleges. An additional 582 have gone on to four-year schools under STARS II.

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