"The Promise scholarships were expected to send as much as $140 million to 96,000 students across the state this year, and they have a broad constituency. Their possible demise has been the impetus for a protest on the Capitol lawn, for editorials in student newspapers, for no fewer than nine Facebook pages," the Lansing State Journal reports. "But they aren't the only scholarships likely to be cut this year, and according to some experts, they aren't necessarily the most vital. The same House and Senate conference committee that voted earlier this week to eliminate the Promise grants also voted to cut a total of $60 million from six other state scholarship programs, among them programs for student nurses, part-time students, poorer students at private colleges. Most of them award money on the basis of need and, last year, they served more than 80,000 students."