"A scholarship program designed to allow low-income students to graduate from college debt-free will be phased out as part of the cuts made in this year's budget," the Greensboro News Record reports. "Gov. Bev Perdue Friday signed the $19 billion budget lawmakers approved earlier this week. The measure raises $1 billion in new taxes and cuts programs throughout the budget to deal with what House and Senate leaders described as a $4.5 billion shortfall. The $16.2 million EARN Scholarship program was among those cuts. Created in the late 1990s, the scholarships pay up to $4,000 per year to students whose families are at 200 percent of the poverty level or below."