A program to help public service lawyers repay student loans may be cut.

Since 1989, the N.C. Legal Education Assistance Foundation has helped assistant prosecutors and public defenders and attorneys working at legal aid, legal services and nonprofits repay their law-school loans.

One of the first loan repayment assistance programs of its kind in the country, the program has helped 404 attorneys with more than $3 million in quarterly payments to repay loans.

Recipients are chosen through a competitive process and have to stay in public service for a certain length of time.

"Because salaries for public interest lawyers can be in the low $30s, with law-school debt up to $200,000, they can't take those jobs," said executive director Esther Hall. "We're helping them pursue careers in public service."

Since 2006, the foundation received $500,000 a year, all of which went straight to loan repayments. Three part-time staffers, including Hall, are paid from a grant.

"Without the state funding, we would go out of business," she said.

Gov. Beverly Perdue recently proposed cutting the program as part of a plan to balance next year's budget.